Stats: Sam Curran's record-breaking feat; India up against fourth-innings history
Beginning the day with a deficit of 21 runs, England began rather shakily as Alastair Cook nicked off to Jasprit Bumrah. The newly promoted Moeen Ali did not last long either. A handy partnership started to blossom between Keaton Jennings and Joe Root.
Mohammed Shami pulled India back into the game by picking wickets off consecutive balls before unleashing a direct hit to run out Root. However, Jos Buttler compiled a steady 69 to put England into ascendancy.
Sam Curran reiterated his glowing all-round credentials with another valuable knock lower down the order. At the end of the day's play, he remained unbeaten on 37 to take England's lead to 233 with two wickets still left at their disposal.
Here are all the interesting numbers from the third day's play in Southampton.
1 - Instances of India successfully chasing a fourth-innings target of 200 or more in Tests held outside Asia since 2000. Riding on Rahul Dravid's unbeaten 72, they had hunted down a target of 230 for the loss of six wickets against Australia at Adelaide in 2003.
3 - Total number of wins for India after being set a fourth-innings target of 200 or more in Tests held outside Asia. Aside from the above mentioned Adelaide run-chase, their only other such productive pursuits away from the subcontinent were 403 against West Indies at Port of Spain in 1976 and 200 against New Zealand at Dunedin in 1968.
11 - Catches taken by KL Rahul in the series thus far. This is the most number of catches taken by any Indian fielder in an away Test series. Including home series as well, only Rahul Dravid (13 catches against Australia in 2004) and Eknath Solkar (12 catches against England in 1972/73) have taken more number of catches for India.
16 - Consecutive innings for Keaton Jennings without registering a fifty. Among England openers, his lean run is joint-third worst with Mike Atherton who also went through 16 successive innings (from 1997 to 1998) without a half-century. Mark Butcher (23 innings from 1998 to 2001) and John Edrich (19 innings from 1971 to 1975) are the only ones to endure poorer phases.
22.65 - Jennings' batting average from 11 Tests thus far. This is the lowest average among all openers who have scored a century on debut. West Indies' Adrian Barath (23.46) and England's Pelham Warner (23.92) are the only other openers to average less than 25 after beginning their careers with a ton.
30 - Byes conceded by Rishabh Pant in the Test so far. Among Indian wicket-keepers, only Dinesh Karthik (47 against Pakistan at Bangalore in 2007) has conceded more byes in a Test match.
37 - Consecutive innings in which England's opening batsmen have failed to put on a 100-run partnership. The last instance of them putting on 100 runs for the first wicket came in the first innings of the 2016 Chennai Test against India. Their run of 40 successive innings from March 2013 to April 2015 is England's only leaner phase without a partnership of 100 or more for the opening wicket.
173 - Highest fourth-innings target successfully chased by India in England. Ajit Wadekar's team hunted down the stiff target at The Oval in 1971 to clinch the match as well as the series.
178 - Runs scored by India in the fourth innings of their previous Test against England at this venue. Chasing 445, they lost by 266 runs as Moeen Ali picked six wickets in the 2014 Southampton Test.
242 - Total runs scored by Sam Curran from five innings in the series thus far. Against India, this is the highest tally of runs in a Test series by any player operating from number eight or below in the batting order. The previous highest was Daniel Vettori's 220 runs in the 2009 series against MS Dhoni's team in New Zealand.
260 - Total runs scored by Jos Buttler from seven innings in the series thus far. Among both teams, only Virat Kohli (486) has scored more runs than him.
2012 - The year in which India last chased down a target of more than 200 in the fourth innings. India successfully chased 261 against New Zealand in Bangalore. Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravichandran Ashwin are the only survivors from that lineup.