Live Cricket Score, India vs England, 1st Test Day 4: India one wicket away to bat again against England (Source: AP)

Indian seamers dominated on Day 3, but England’s last pair eluded them from batting again at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. (Photos: Third day, Indian seamers steal show)

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Day 3 Recap

He has a towering presence, chest-out swagger, mop-like hair that rest on his shoulders, wears an unshaven look and a neck crowded by jewellery. Ishant Sharma has the look but not the numbers to intimidate batsmen.

On most days of his seven year-long international career, the brute of a man has looked like a ‘little boy lost’. However, during a seven over spell in the second session on Day 3, Sharma looked fearsome and terrorised the England middle-order.

Ishant finished Day 3 with figures of 3/109 off 27 overs. (Source: AP)

For the second successive day, all the drama was squeezed into the post-lunch session. It was the period that saw lethal spells, a bizarre dismissal, DRS debates and a dodgy decision too. With every incident on the field received by louds moans, cheers and jeers from the locals in the stands, the afternoon action was the most engrossing and, probably, series determining too.

Six overs before that Sharma had got his team the all-important breakthrough by getting Sam Robson (59) with a ball that nipped back a bit. But with the new ‘old’ ball, it was a whole new game. Cricket balls, it is understood, have a mind of their own. They swing and bounce differently. The one that India got in the 54th over was reverse swinging and, for the first time in the game, reaching Dhoni’s gloves.

Sharma pounced on the opportunity and so did Dhoni. The tall pacer first got Gary Ballance with a ball that swung and straightened. The skipper ended left-arm spinner Ravinder Jaejda’s spell to throw the ball to the team’s best ‘swing’ exponent Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Gary Ballance was dismissed by Ishant for 71 runs (167 balls). (Source: AP)

For the next 40 or so overs, bowlers would run in hiding the ball in their hand, not showing the batsmen which was the shiny side and keeping them guessing about the trajectory. (Read More: Ishant leaves hosts spell-bound)