India are celebrating already
Rohit Mahajan
Tribune News Service
Visakhapatnam, November 18
After India got to 455, England's hope lay with three men — captain, champ and a teen. Alastair Cook, Joe Root and Haseeb Hameed, however, didn't prosper. Cook got the best delivery of the day, from Mohammed Shami, which broke his off-stump. Root, trying to disperse the ring of the catchers around him, mishit a lofted cover drive and was comfortably caught by the man at long-off. Hameed was run out after a yes-no negotiation over a run with Root, wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha back-flicking the ball on to the wickets.
These three wickets, in essence, broke England's back. Cook and Root had a total of 1238 runs in India before today. Hameed, in his debut at Rajkot, had made 82 and 31. The other five batsmen in the top eight had a total of 369 runs in India. It's a developing team and, in conditions that became increasingly tricky, England were quickly reduced to 80/5. At stumps, they were 103/5, Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow (both on 12) holding the fort which seems close to falling. These two must defend and attack stoutly and long if England are to escape.
Surface tension?
The wicket didn't have a direct role to play in the fall of the five English wickets. Cook first — Shami began by angling or swinging the new ball away. Then, third ball of the third over, he brought one in sharply off the wicket. Cook was playing for the angled delivery but, off the seam, it darted through the gap the captain had left between bat and pad, and the off-stump was split into two. Hameed was run out after a misunderstanding with Root. The speed with which Jayant Yadav reached the ball at deep square leg surprised Root, but he sent back Hameed a bit late — a fatal mistake by Root, paid for by Hameed. Root, having got to 53 off 98 balls, feeling a bit too crowded by the in-field as Ravichandran Ashwin bowled to him, went for a lofted drive and miscued it.
England assistant coach Paul Farbrace's description of this phase of the innings was a bit comical but quite accurate: “Cooky got a good ball, daft run-out, then frenetic period of play where it looked like something was going to happen every ball.”
England lost two other men — poor Ben Duckett is innocent of the guile required to bat on such a wicket; Moeen Ali, a centurion in Rajkot, became Yadav's first victim after Yadav, bravely for a debutant, went for a DRS appeal.
India's lower order might
India's overnight batsmen, Virat Kohli and Ashwin, began at 317/4, threatening to crush England with an ever-bigger mountain of runs. In the 10-odd overs before the day's first wicket fell, England's bowlers didn't pose much danger. But Kohli, overnight 151, looked dangerous; he struck two fours off James Anderson and one off Stuart Broad, and this convinced Cook that the fast men weren't going to trouble India. Then, twice in two deliveries, Ali had Kohli edging balls outside the off-stump, both times to Ben Stokes. Stokes dropped the first catch and grabbed the second. Kohli went off a deeply dissatisfied man, despite his big innings, for he wanted to shut England out completely.
Both Saha (3) and Ravindra Jadeja (0) fell with India at 363. The end seemed nigh. But No. 9 Yadav, who's got a double century in first class cricket, proved that he's no rabbit with the bat. Shepherded by Ashwin, he hung around for 87 minutes and 84 balls. The two added 64 in 19.1 overs for the eighth wicket — the third-biggest partnership of the innings. Ashwin, as is his wont, played like a proper batsman and got his seventh 50.
Later in the evening, Ashwin said the wicket is “only going to get tougher to bat” on. It hasn't broken yet, but balls have kept low and shot through, sowing seeds of doubt in the batsmen's minds. Ashwin and Co. are very confident that they'd reap a sweet harvest very, very soon.
