Mohali: Indian team announced to world cricket about its ability to score runs through its lower middle order. True, that it has been the feature of India’s recent Test success but what happened in Mohali was unprecedented. And as a result, the match, which could have gone anywhere is surely in India’s grip, with England struggling at 78 for 4, still 56 runs behind the first innings lead. In total the last four men scored a 213 runs more than the first six wickets had managed. It was also the first time that No. 7, No. 8 and No.9 scored half centuries for India in the same innings.
When the day started England would have hoped to concede a worst of 50 runs lead but till the end of the day when England were 78/4, it looked like India had made the series deciding moves with R Ashwin taking three out of the four wickets that fell. Although Joe Root, who came in to open the bat remained unbeaten, R Ashwin’s dismissal of Ben Stokes in the final over of the day was just about icing in the cake.
Alastair Cook struggled to survive in the middle and got away with two DRS reviews, before being done by a beauty from R Ashwin. Moeen Ali came in at No. 3 for the first time in Tests and looked comfortable until he chipped a short straight to mid-on. Jonny Bairstow needed an excellent catch behind the stumps from Parthiv Patel to get rid of him and R Ashwin dismissed Ben Stokes to break the rib cage of the England batting order.
When India resumed their innings this morning, they were 12 runs behind. R Jadeja played one of his longest test innings in terms of ball faced and made a career best 90, an innings that was very uncharacteristic of him, but beautiful to watch and Jadeja certainly needs more innings like this under his belt. But it was not him alone that helped India get a 100+ lead, it was time for Jayant Yadav’s half century knock and he continued his impressive display of skills with both the bat and bowl in Test Cricket for India.
Ben Stokes took a fifer this morning, when he dismissed Umesh Yadav, but we will wait and see if that proves enough. Jonny Bairstow’s catch also meant that there was a new wicket-keeping record for most dismissals in a year, that, perhaps being the only positives for England.
One of the major reasons why cricket has remained relevant and interesting is its unpredictability and although we can sense India going 2-0 up, it’s never over until it’s over.
