Indian captain Virat Kohli was a class different from the rest as he smashed his way to a brilliant 149 off 225 balls, single-handedly dragging India close to England’s first innings total of 287. He eventually failed to give his side the lead but the master-class innings which also was his first century in England earned Kohli plaudits from many including Steve Waugh.
The Australian great, praising the Indian skipper for his superlative knock backed him to “break all records in world cricket.”
With India constantly losing wickets at one end, Kohli got into the ODI mode and added 126 with the tail-enders, to take India close to just 13 runs short of the English total. He fell one short of what would have been a glorious hundred and fifty run for the Indian skipper.
He stitched a 48-run partnership with Hardik Pandya and then after Jimmy Anderson had ripped off Ravichandran Ashwin’s off-stump, Kohli took control of the proceedings, marshaling the bowlers wonderfully to put up a good score on the board.
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The run-machine was at his equal best even in the second innings ending the third-day on 43 not out alongside Dinesh Karthik who was on 18.
Earlier, the Indian bowlers showed great character and determination to pack England out for 180 in the second innings and set up a 193-run target to achieve. Ishant Sharma who had produced a match-winning figure of 7/74 four years at Lord’s against the same opposition, once again stood up and delivered taking 5/51 after Ashwin had torn apart the English top-order with a three-wicket haul.
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In the end, though India was bundled out for 162 to hand over a 31-run victory to England who take a 1-0 lead in the five-match Test series. Kohli once again top scored with another half-century but none other batsmen could complement him as India once again failed to win a Test at Edgbaston.
Ben Stokes with 4/40 was the pick of the English bowlers, while Anderson and Stuart Broad took two wickets each.