The big story: Parthiv Patel’s brutal half-century takes India home

England have to be lauded for delaying the inevitable as Joe Root and Haseeb Hameed battled hard and scored fighting half-centuries to hand their side a 102-run lead in the second innings. Hameed in particular, won over a new legion of fans that included Indian skipper Virat Kohli for his gutsy unbeaten 53, rallying superbly with Chris Woakes and the tail.

Root was impressive too but the writing was on the wall for England when Ravindra Jadeja dismissed him. England had a sniff when Woakes’s nasty short delivery got rid of Murali Vijay. However, comeback man Parthiv Patel put an end to any hopes of an English resurgence by putting the bowlers to the sword and smashing a flurry of boundaries. The 31-year-old was particularly severe on the spinners and hit the winning runs for India at Mohali. The teams cool off for a week before locking horns for the fourth Test at Mumbai.

Other top stories:

  1. Pakistan meekly succumbed to a 138-run defeat in the second Test against New Zealand at Hamilton, picking up an unwanted record of being the first side to lose nine wickets in a session. The hosts managed to erase some of the nightmares of a poor India tour with a 2-0 series whitewash.
  2. The Bangladesh Premier League has once again come under the scanner after Rangpur Riders player Jupiter Ghosh claimed that team manager Sanuar Hossain had told him to ‘fix’ the result of the matches before the start of the tournament. 
  3. On day one of round eight of the Ranji Trophy, Mumbai skittled out Bengal for 99 courtesy of Shardul Thakur, who ended with figures of 6/31. The focus, though, was on the Goa-Andhra encounter at Dhanbad, which had 20 wickets fall in the day’s play. Shadab Jakati starred with the ball, picking up an eight-for.
  4. India women beat Pakistan in the Twenty20 Asia Cup by five wickets as Mithali Raj steered her side during the chase with a gritty 36. India chased down 97 set by Pakistan with four balls to spare.