England v India 2014 - Liam Plunkett confident of England victory in Lord's Test

Plunkett played a starring role with bat and ball on day 3 of the 2nd Test

It would seem that Liam Plunkett’s first half-century in Test cricket in addition to his two crucial wickets late on day 3 of the 2nd Test between England and India at Lord’s has put England in pole position to take a 1-0 lead in the series, with India having a lead of 145 runs with just 6 wickets in hand.

It could’ve been much better for India, of course, having been 118/1 at one stage and seemingly cruising to a big lead.

But Plunkett has turned the match on its head, with a fiery spell of fast bowling to unsettle the Indians.

The Yorkshire quick, though, thinks that the match is finely poised going into day 4 of the Test match.

"The match is quite balanced at the moment. It is very even between both sides," said Plunkett after the day's play. In the morning, if we can nick a couple a wickets quickly then the match will swing in our favour. If you get in at Lord's it is a good wicket to bat on and you can chase the targets down. So anything they give us should be chaseable," he told reporters at the end of the day's play.

When asked about the total England would be comfortable chasing in the 4th innings, he said, "There's not much variable bounce at the moment. The sun is out and it will bake the pitch and it will get flatter. I think 250-300 should be an ideal score."

While the 29-year old’s primary role is with the ball in hand, he looked technically sound with the bat and helped England in overtaking India’s 1st innings total by 24 runs.

He has a good reputation in County cricket as a lower-order batsman and is now showing why in Test match cricket.

"When I came out to bat last evening as the night watchman, the new ball was due. So I tried not to play certain shots. Jimmy Anderson has shown that runs at the end are quite crucial. In the morning, then we tried scoring at five runs at a time," he said.

"But both Matt and me are aggressive players, so saw the ball and scored off them. This got out partnership going.

"I take great pride in my batting. I am working hard on it. I got the freedom to play my shots today. It feels good to get the fifty."

Plunkett bowled too short and wide in the 1st innings on a pitch with a lot of assistance for the fast bowlers. He expressed his disappointment with his 1st innings showing and wanted to make amends for it 2nd time around.

"They were 70-odd for one. I thought if I could nip a few out here that would leave them at 100/4. I felt good bowling then, in good rhythm and I changed lengths because I got it wrong in the first innings.

"Then I got two wickets in two balls. I am an aggressive bowler and that has got me back in the England team. It is all about judging line to ball," he said.

"But the hat-trick ball was not a good delivery. It was a bit wide one. I wanted to get it in line like the last two. You always try to bowl in line to a new batsman, but I was off on that one," he concluded.