Despite some early hiccups, Indian skipper Virat Kohli and vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane saw off the challenge posed by the English bowlers to increase India’s lead to 298 with seven second innings wickets in hand at Visakhapatnam.

Kohli, especially, was in sublime form – continuing from where he had left off in the first innings. On a pitch where most batsmen have struggled, the 28-year-old was unbeaten on 56 from just 70 deliveries at the end of play on day three.

Earlier in the day, Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow put up a defiant face as the duo added 110 runs for England’s sixth wicket. Both batsmen, who have been in top form in 2016, scored half-centuries.

Adil Rashid looked good with the bat, notching up an unbeaten 32 as England were bowled out for 255, conceding a 200-run lead to India. Despite having the opportunity, Indian captain Virat Kohli did not enforce the follow-on as the pitch condition for batting is expected to get worse as the match progresses.

After a below-par performance in the first Test at Rajkot, Ravichandran Ashwin was back to his best – picking up his 22nd five-wicket haul in Test cricket.

Just like in the first innings, Indian openers Murali Vijay and KL Rahul failed to get the hosts off to a good start as they fell for 3 and 10 respectively. Cheteshwar Pujara followed them soon and India were struggling at 40/3.

James Anderson and Stuart Broad were very impressive once again as they picked up all the three Indian wickets to fall between themselves.

Kohli and Rahane, then came together and made sure that there was no more damage done as they added 58 unbeaten runs for the fourth wicket.

BRIEF SCORES

India 455 all out [Kohli 167, Anderson 3/62] and 98/3 [Kohli 56*, Broad 3/6] lead England 255 all out [Stokes 70, Ashwin 5/67] by 298 runs.