1st Test Day 3 ENG 352/9 v IND 457 (ENG trail by 105)

LUNCH Report: England's number two and three have come through the morning session unscathed on day three of the first Test match against India in the reply to the visitors' 457.

The hosts lost Alastair Cook at the start of the innings last night, but his fellow opener Robson and Ballance have steadied the ship, although they remain more than 300 runs behind India's first innings total.

Ballance brought up his 50 with a cut behind point off the bowling of Stuart Binny in the 42nd over, with Robson following suit two overs later with a similar shot.

The England run rate was even slower than India's, at 2.64, but Ballance (59*) and Robson (59*) safely saw them through the session for the afternoon's play, which will resume on 131-1.


Tea FOW: 134-2 (Robson 59) 154-3 (Ballance 71), 172-4 (Bell 25), 197-5 (Moeen 14), 
202-6 (Prior 5), 202-7 (Stokes 0)

Ishant Sharma has starred for India as England reach tea having lost six wickets in the afternoon session on day three of the first Test at Trent Bridge.

The partnership between Sam Robson and Gary Ballance was broken after Sharma claimed the wicket of Robson (59) for an lbw, while Ballance (71) fell the same way not long after following another delivery from the batsman.

Joe Root and Ian Bell attempted to steady England's innings, but Sharma struck again when Bell made a poor late decision to pull out of the shot, but he caught the edge and the ball fell into the hands of MS Dhoni.

The batsman headed back to the pavilion having hit 25 from 37 balls, but it wasn't long before he was joined byMoeen Ali (14) and Matt Prior (5), who was unfairly declared out by the umpire after being caught behind, despite no evidence of a nick.

Another wicket fell in quick succession following Prior's dismissal as Ben Stokes went out for a duck after getting caught out by Dhoni following Bhuvneshwar Kumar's delivery.

Joe Root (13 not out) and Stuart Broad (1 not out) have ended the session on 205-7.

STUMPS: India remain in control of the first Test after England reached stumps on 352-9 on day three at Trent Bridge, despite a late surge from Joe Root and James Anderson in their tenth-wicket partnership.

The hosts suffered a disastrous afternoon session by losing six wickets before tea, with Ishant Sharma claiming three of them.

England managed to avoid the follow-on with Root and Stuart Broad trying to revive their team's attack, but after an impressive showing, Broad was dismissed just shy of his half century.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar managed to send Broad packing for an lbw, which was met with a chorus of boos from the Trent Bridge crowd, but replays showed that the ball would have hit leg stump.

Broad, who hit 47 from 42 balls, was shortly joined in the pavilion by Liam Plunkett, who was bowled out by Kumar having reached just seven runs.

With one wicket remaining, Root tried to keep the attack going by reaching 50, his fifth in Test format, while Anderson unleashed numerous reverse sweeps after entering the field.

However, there was an injury doubt for Anderson after the ball smashed onto the top of his right hand, which required treatment from the physio, but he was able to continue.

Both Root and Anderson remain unbeaten on 78 and 23 respectively, while England trail by 105 runs.