Mohali: After winning a crucial toss against India at Mohali, England certainly missed the advantage they had as batsmen either gifted their wickets to the opposition or failed to apply themselves to the middle. It was a day when England decided to reshuffle their batting order. One man delivered big time and hadn’t it been for him it would have been all over. Jonny Bairstow made a 89 of 177 deliveries leading England’s revival after a disastrous 92/4 at Lunch.
England’s 268/8 was more of a wasted chance and opportunity because India dropped as many as four catches and yet were able to reduce the total to 268 and picking up eight wickets in the process.
Bairstow added 57 for the fifth wicket along with Ben Stokes; 69 for the 6th wicket along with Jos Butler; and 49 for the 7th wicket along with Chris Woakes, which helped England reach the total that they reached. The other significant knock was of Jos Butler who made a 43 of 80 balls although less than what England needed of him but important amidst the circumstances in which it came.
India’s bowling was spot on throughout the day, and everybody did their job as if the roles were perfectly defined in the dressing room and that’s exactly what everybody had done. The pacemen were amazing with the new ball as well as the reverse swinging old ball. Jayant Yadav continued his excellent display of bowling skills at the highest level of cricket. Ravindra Jadeja did not give anything away to the batsmen, not even time to think, finishing his overs in a jiffy, picking up 2 wickets. And Ravichandran Ashwin was one again at his usual best, although he didn’t start on a good note when he was bowling a leg stumpish line and gave the batsmen easy runs but he quickly amended himself.
In the end, Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid almost instilled the hope of the tail wagging, but just before the end of the day Umesh Yadav clean bowled Chris Woakes and that just about made it clear that even if England aim at 300, their tail needs to wag big time. While India got away with their dropped chances, England did not, and the fact that they did not take their chances even after getting lucky with the coin is going to haunt them for the next 4 days. These can be really long days if England do not fight back.
Can this be the manuscript of India’s 2-0 series lead? We will wait and see what happens at Mohali on Day 2.
