Veteran England pacer James Anderson was happy after dismissing India captain Virat Kohli on the first day of the third Test at Headingley on Wednesday. However, both of them were involved in a verbal spat during the second Test at Lord’s which India won convincingly.
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli tried for a straight drive off a full delivery from Anderson that got the slightest of nicks and he eventually got out as well. “I think it was special. We have had some great battles over the years. He is a fantastic player and someone you want to keep quiet as a team. Especially, in a five-match series, if he gets going he can be very disruptive,” said Anderson after the day’s play,” he said.
“I think the way we have bowled to him throughout the series has been very good. We just got to keep doing that and keep him quiet as often as we can,” he further added.
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The veteran, however, has registered an impressive figure of 3/6 in eight overs with the scalps of KL Rahul (0), Cheteshwar Pujara (1) and Kohli (7). James Anderson also admitted that the focus at Headingley was to focus on the job in hand as well and England did quite well by restricting India within 78.
“We have made a conscious effort of trying to just focus on us, on what we do well and try and ignore everything else, the outside noise or wherever they might be going on, and just yet and make sure there’s a real focus on what we do well,” Anderson said. “Yeah, I think there was a bit of chat about that. We were just making a point of trying to focus on what we do well.”
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In reply, England openers Haseeb Hameed (60 not out) and Rory Burn (52 not out) steadied the ship with an unbeaten 120 runs with a lead of 42 runs after day one. “In a performance like that, I think it doesn’t get much better and the way the two guys played the day with the bat was outstanding, and exactly what we’ve been talking about throughout this series,” James Anderson concluded.
