Vizag: Throughout the match so far on this typical sub-continent surface, England cricketers seem to have lost a trick. It was visible in Alastair Cook’s body language itself after losing a crucial toss on Day 1. Yet there was opportunity today for England to get ahead in the morning session which was utilized to some extent when Moeen Ali’s off breaks seemed to get considerable purchase from the track and when they got Virat Kohli early in the day for a well-made 167.
But it was Ravichandran Ashwin, the savior, again added 64 runs with Jayant Yadav, the debutant, for the eighth wicket. Jaynat Yadav isn’t a bad number 9 at all. Ashwin in the process completed yet another half century and more importantly took India above 450. Yadav had a wonderful debut so far. He stayed there for almost an-hour-and-a-half, faced 84 balls and scored 35 valuable runs, as India put forth a total of 455 for the first innings.
Getting Kohli early did help in restricting India closer to 450, otherwise 500 and above was a given.
And then came India’s turn with the ball and Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav learnt lessons from the Rajkot Test and bowled impressively in the right corridors and made the batsmen play at their deliveries. Shami, in fact, fulfilled a fast bowler’s dream when he broke Alastair Cook’s off stump with a gem of a delivery which forced an error of judgement from Cook. Joe Root and Hameed were somewhat rebuilding the innings and strengthening the foundation so that middle order could try and reach close to 455 if not above but debutant Jayant Yadav showed his excellent athletic skills when he first slid, took the ball and threw the ball perfectly from deep square leg that ran out young Hameed and spoiled the only time when England had generated stability in their innings.
At 51/2, England’s middle order was exposed and it didn’t take much time for the Indian spinners to exploit the England’s weakness against spin. R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja hit the nail spot on. While Ashwin was the best of the lot, his 13 overs going for just 20 runs and picking up two wickets and most importantly picking up the wicket of Joe Root who was looking flawless against the spinners, in fact scoring freely.
From 51/2, England were reduced to 80/5 in the 35th over when Ali departed and it took Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow a high quality, high spirited resistance to get past 100 and go back on Day 2 with some hope of revival on Day 3, otherwise it won’t take much time for Indian bowlers to wrap up this England innings and who knows bowl them out once again in another day and a half.
Can England come back in the game from here? Will they get past the follow-on mark? Another morning session holds key to the match and an important factor to decide who will lead the series after the match.
