Mohali: It took India less than five overs this morning to wrap up the England tail and England failed to touch the psychologically important 300-run mark against India in the third Test match being played at Mohali.

But England did manage to fight back and even if India take a lead from here it wouldn’t be big enough to rule England out of the Test.

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India opened with Murali Vijay and Parthiv Patel and although Vijay departed early Parthiv and Cheteshwar Pujara set it up beautifully for the Indian middle order. In fact Parthiv looked splendid in his 85-ball 42 and was out lbw to an extremely close call by AU Rashid.

Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli continued their Test Cricket genius as both accumulated 75 runs for the third wicket before Pujara was dismissed for a well made 51. But then came the twist in the tale. The middle order collapsed. Next three partnerships read 4, 4 and 48. India found themselves at 6/204, still significantly short of England’s first innings 283.

Ajinkya Rahane’s poor form continued as he went for a duck, K Nair the debutant got run out for 4 and Virat Kohli could not continue after 62. That meant that R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja had a big task ahead of them and India were also in danger of losing their advantage.

However, by the end of the day’s play the duo managed 67* in 19.3 overs, more importantly taking the total to 271/6, which means that India in all probability will take a first innings lead unless something dramatic happens. R Ashwin in the process also completed yet another half century and a double of 500 runs and 50 wickets in a year, who was equally well supported by R Jadeja who will resume from 31 on Day 3.

All said, England would be extremely happy by their performance with the bowl and will surely believe that they are still in the game and if they pick up the 4 wickets early in the in the 1st session and bat for more than a day and a half, the match can very well turn its head upside down. As the game progresses, England will hope that other spinners also chip in with some wickets and reduce the burden from AU Rashid.

All that and much more awaits us from Mohali.