'There will be things that happen between the two teams but both teams know there's a line you can't cross but it's not really been troubled too much'
England assistant coach Marcus Trescothik feels cricket has become more friendly because of franchise tournaments all around the world, and that the constant nudging between India and the hosts in the ongoing Lord's Test has provided the much-needed competitive edge to the game.
There has been exchange of words between India and England players in the third Test, but it has not led to bad blood, which is good for the game.
"Having that competitive edge definitely helps the situation. It helps the atmosphere in the series," Trescothick said after the fourth day's play on Sunday.
"Cricket has got a bit more friendly over the past few years because the players are together in franchise tournaments all over the world. Sometimes it's good to create something in the game.
"Both teams are passionate about playing the game and it is understandable that at times it gets to a boiling point," he said.
"There will be things that happen between the two teams but both teams know there's a line you can't cross but it's not really been troubled too much," he added.
Going into the fifth and final day, the third Test is interestingly poised with India needing 135 more runs in their chase of 193, while England require six wickets.
Chasing the target, India lost four wickets in the last hour for just 58 runs.
"The last hour of viewing, our guys running in really well, there was an edge out there and it creates a great spectacle," said Trescothick.
"We were fairly relaxed in the dressing room, controlling the emotions of what's going on. We all enjoy every wicket but we are still very controlled in what we are trying to do," added the former England opener.
Trescothick admitted that it was the crowd's energy that got his bowlers into the game during the final few overs.
"I think already we have seen four good days of cricket and two games which have been well supported, but that last hour or half an hour, the support and the energy around the ground made it amazing, really, did not it? Everybody was invested into it. From an England point of view, we love those sorts of situations when the crowd is really up behind the team. Hopefully, we can get a bit more of that tomorrow and we can push forward to winning the game."
"I think we had momentum a little bit towards the back end. When you are going out with a new ball, you are always hoping then you're going to pick up early wickets."
"We got an early one, then they got a partnership, but I think the buzz around the ground at the end really gave the boys the lift that they needed. A couple of late wickets in the day give them that hope that we are bang on the money," he continued.
Trescothink said the first hour of the fifth day will decide the fate of the Test.
"It will revolve around the first hour of the day and how positive India can be or how dominant we can be and how many wickets we can get," he said.
Offering an assessment of his team's batting performance, Trescothick said, "I think we always wanted 250-plus, of course we did. But I think after the first innings it was really hard to judge what a good score was going to be because there was definitely more variation in bounce this morning than we had seen at any time in the game really."
"Again, we would have loved to have had more runs than what we did but I still feel like we have got a decent score on the board with something to really push towards tomorrow. So, I do not think we are going to sit back and dwell on what has happened today too much. We will look forward to what is going to happen tomorrow," he added.
On KL Rahul's solid old-school technique and brilliant run in this series so far, Trescothick said, "Well along with other players of course you know you know himself, Rishabh you know they are both very very dangerous players obviously in different ways for what they're trying to do but Kale's been you know classical old-school style of test cricket isn't he? He had left the ball really well, judgment of the length is good, looked to bat for a long period of time and he has done it well."
"Obviously 100 in the first innings (for KL Rahul), hopefully you know we can get him out early and we can start getting into the rest of the tail as they come along but he has been you know he is been pretty dominant in a few of the games that he has played and he has pretty much got a score in most things that he has played so," he added.
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