5th Test: India eye historic win against England

In all seven Tests this winter against both Bangladesh and India, Rashid has collected 30 wickets – nine more than England’s next-best, Moeen Ali. Over this period, Murali Vijay has notched up three tons in 26 knocks and Shikhar Dhawan two in 16.

152 – Runs added by Rahul and Patel for the first wicket which is the fifth highest by an Indian opening pair when opening for the first time together after Sehwag-Rahul Dravid (410), Dhawan-Vijay (289), Arun Lal-Gavaskar (156) and Wasim Jaffer-Dinesh Karthik (153).

India is known as the home of cricket now but if Test attendance is any criteria then the Aussies have the clear edge.

Patel pulled paceman Jake Ball and ran two to register his sixth test half-century, second of the series.

Rahul has now notched up four Test centuries since the start of 2015, the most by an Indian opener over that period. England’s ambit at trying to frustrate him out did not work on Rahul.

Resuming their innings at 60-0, India produced a solid batting performance as Rahul and Parthiv complemented each other.

India were 173-1 at lunch on day three of the fifth and final cricket Test against England here today.

KL Rahul and Parthiv Patel seem to have hit it off as openers quite easily.

The six was particularly pleasing on the eye as KL Rahul danced down the track to smash Liam Dawson for a maximum over long off.

The 24-year-old from Bangalore soon notched up his first half-century of the series by taking a couple in the 28th over off Stuart Broad.

To do that what England need to ensure is that they cut out the poor strokes and just play every ball on merit.

Rahul pushed one through the mid-wicket and pushed for a single. It is a lot easier in places like Australia or England where elections and boards are not that important so from that point of view it is going to be hard for India to take the game away from venues but India is surely going to smaller venues. “He tried to hit a wide ball”.

England deliberately dried him up outside off-stump, restricting Kohli’s scoring chances with a tight line and length, and he ended up chasing the fatal ball from Broad in his enthusiasm to score. However, Pujara was surprised by a short-of-a-length delivery from Ben Stokes which nibbled his bat on its way to the wicket-keeper Jonny Bairstow. England’s spinners – Dawson, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid – did not look impactful enough, but resorted to bowling negative lines at the right handers.

Stokes (1/37) was also erratic occasionally.