James Anderson still believes he can get Virat Kohli out to win the titanic Edgbaston Test for England – because even the India captain is not invincible.
Kohli has looked just that at times over the past two days, and was still unbeaten on 43 at stumps on day three as he again proved England’s stumbling block. Anderson would have had him for just 21 in his first-innings 149, though, if Dawid Malan had held a regulation slip catch – and England’s all-time leading wicket-taker is keeping the faith he can get his man before India make the 84 runs they need to win after reaching 110-5.
Asked if it will be a case of dismissing Kohli on the fourth morning, or going 1-0 down in the series, Anderson said: “More than likely, yes.
“We’ve just got to give it everything we’ve got in the morning for the first 15-20 overs – leave absolutely nothing out there.
“It’s a really exciting place to be, because you know we could do something special tomorrow by winning this – such a close Test match. So we’ll go to bed dreaming about getting Kohli out first thing.”
Anderson has found Kohli's outside edge four times. Three didn't carry, one was dropped. Yet to be convinced Kohli has ironed out the kinks from 2014.
— Lawrence Booth (@the_topspin) August 2, 2018
Anderson insists it is reality, not fantasy, that he can stop Kohli.
“I’ve been encouraged the way I’ve bowled at him in this game so far, found the edge a few times in the first innings – and on another day I could have got him for 20, and then we’re not talking about how brilliant he is.
“You can’t drop Virat Kohli on 21, because he’s one of the best players in the world, and he’ll capitalise on that – which he did. But we’ve just got to go away and know we can get him.
“No one is invincible in world cricket. We can get him out, and we’ll be trying to do that in the morning.”
England are still in with a chance largely thanks to the all-round contribution of 20-year-old Sam Curran who followed his first-innings four-wicket haul with a maiden Test half-century to inspire the recovery second time round from 87-7 to 180 all out.
Asked if he can credit how quickly Curran has risen to the challenge in just his second Test, Anderson said: “I can believe it, yes, because he’s a really impressive lad. I remember me as a 20-year-old, and I didn’t know what was going on … I was in awe of everyone.
“But he knows exactly what he’s doing, how to set batsmen up, and we saw he has talent with the bat as well. He’s obviously got a little bit of fight in him as well – to go out in that situation and show the guts and determination he did to get the team back into the match, when it looked like we were down and out, I thought was brilliant to see from such a young guy.”
