G. Krishnan
Rajkot, Feb 18:
In an extraordinary day of bowling by the Indians, especially in the absence of their ace off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, the home team took a vital 126-run first innings lead on Saturday.
The lead stretched to 322 at the end of third day on Saturday (India 196/2, day 3 stumps), courtesy Yashasvi Jaiswal’s punishing third Test century, and second of the series. Jaiswal took the attack to the England bowlers, lofting, pulling, sweeping and even reverse sweeping his way to 104 (133b, 9×4, 5×6) before retiring hurt for back spasms, sharing 155 in 185 deliveries for the second wicket with Shubman Gill (65 batting). The duo put India in the driver’s seat from where they can look to go 2-1 ahead in the series. Jaiswal gave England a taste of their own medicine and his knock was even appreciated by England coach Brendon McCullum on his way back to get treatment for the back trouble.
England, who raced to 207 for two in just 35 overs on Friday, crumbled to 319 all out, giving India the vital lead. It was for the third successive Test in this series that India have taken a first-innings lead in excess of 100 after 190 in Hyderabad and 143 in Visakhapatnam.
Ashwin had to withdraw from the team and return home late on Friday night to attend to a family emergency and as per the BCCI statement, would take no further participation in the match. India, left with only four specialist bowlers, began Day 3 on a disadvantageous note.
But, as is often the case when a team pulls all its might in times of crisis, the Indian bowlers showed tremendous character on Saturday on a pitch that was still looking good for batting. It was the shot selection of some of the England batsmen but largely the accuracy and perseverance of the Indian bowlers that helped them dismiss England.
The visitors added only 112 to their overnight total and lost eight wickets. And, in the 10.1 overs post lunch bowled relentlessly by Md Siraj from the pavilion end and Ravindra Jadeja from the press box end, the end from which the spinners got better chances of taking wickets, England lost five wickets for 29 runs. Siraj, who bowled one long spell of 11.1-1-30-3 either side of lunch, was simply superb to bowl 5.1-1-12-3 post lunch. Jadeja supported with a tidy 5-0-17-2.
But, the morning belonged to the never-say-die Jasprit Bumrah and the left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav, who bowled a long spell of 12-1-35-1 for almost the entire session.
Bumrah drew first blood, removing Joe Root. The out-of-form former captain gives one the impression that he doesn’t like the Bazball approach and that doesn’t let him play his natural style with a straight bat. Of course, he has got runs through the reverse hit in Test matches in the Ben Stokes-Brendon McCullum regime. But in upping the pace, he resorted to reverse hit off Bumrah in the day’s fifth over straight to Jaiswal at second slip, the fielder holding on to it in the second attempt. This was the ninth time Bumrah has dismissed Root, who, though not for the first time, played an unnatural shot in trying to keep pace with the Bazball approach.
Jonny Bairstow’s poor series extended to one more innings, falling for a fourth-ball duck, Yadav turning one sharply from outside the off-stump to trap the right-hander who went back for a defensive shot.
Even as Ben Duckett completed his 150, he fell to a poor shot, undoing all the brilliant stuff until then. On 153, he lazily cut a wide delivery from Yadav and the ball went straight to the cover fielder Gill.
With England going to lunch at a decent 290/5 with Ben Stokes, in his 100th Test, and wicketkeeper Ben Foakes at the crease, it was a total surrender to Siraj post lunch. Stokes, it was, who started the decline, slog sweeping Jadeja to wide long-on for Jasprit Bumrah to complete a fine running catch. Siraj accounted for Foakes, Rehan Ahmed, with a beautiful yorker, and James Anderson, while Jadeja also had Tom Hartley stumped.
