How Ollie Robinson executed the Perfect Plan against India captain Virat Kohli at Lord’s

Ollie Robinson (1/47) got the prized wicket of Indian captain Virat Kohli (42) on a day when the paceman’s nagging and length bothered the Indian batsmen.

Virat Kohli, who looked at ease after a tense start only to nick one to Joe Root at first slip off Ollie Robinson late in the day.

“Virat is probably my biggest wicket to date, so I was happy with that. It was a huge moment. The plan for him was always to bowl the fourth-fifth stump line, back of a length. Luckily the plan worked,” said Robinson after stumps on Thursday.

India batsman KL Rahul (127 not out) cracked a superb unbeaten century and Rohit Sharma made 83 as the visitors reached a strong position at 276 for 3 after the opening day of a rain-hit second test against England at Lord’s.

Robinson credited the opposition batsmen for their efforts but also felt that his team was unlucky.

“There were probably 10-15 play-and-misses that I could count and, on another day, we might have had them two-three down early on,” the 27-year-old rued.

“We definitely looked at conditions and thought we could get a few early ones here. I think on another day it (wickets) might have happened.

“I felt we did bowl well. We toiled hard against their batters and to be fair, they played well. It’s just one of those days where they didn’t nick it to be honest,” he said.

England’s pace bowlers got plenty of movement in overcast conditions after the start of play was delayed by 30 minutes due to rain, but they had little reward thereafter as captain Joe Root was left to rue his decision to bowl.

“We expected the pitch to be a little bit quicker, nippier. Obviously, it’s a little bit slow,” said Robinson.

“The swing was a little bit inconsistent, I don’t know if it was the ball or the overheads. We decided to go wobble-seam for a little bit, which we felt was a good plan, but the wicket was a little bit slow for it and not as receptive as we thought it might be,” he added.