The Joe Root-led side recovered from early hiccups and a position of vulnerability at 62/5 to reach 290 all out on Day 2 of the fourth Test and take an important lead of 99 runs. This meant that despite India’s fightback with the ball and solid batting from their openers in the closing passage of play, the hosts still had a 56-run deficit and kept their noses ahead in the game.
The play on Friday began very promisingly for India as pacer Umesh dismissed nightwatchman Craig Overton (1) and overnight not out Dawid Malan (31) quite early in the piece. Resuming play at 53/3, England were suddenly in real danger of collapsing and giving India a massive lead despite them getting bowled out for a modest 191 on Day 1.
But then, young Ollie Pope and experienced wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow stitched together a fantastic stand to lead their team’s recovery. The duo broke through the pressure India had created for the first hour with some positive strokeplay. They put on 89 runs for the sixth-wicket stand before Bairstow was out LBW on 37, missing an incoming delivery from Mohammed Siraj.
At 62/5, India needed to sustain the pressure from both ends on the English batsmen. But they desperately missed the injured Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami in this regard, with the likes of Siraj, Shardul Thakur and Umesh later on proving to be really expensive and conceding a flurry of boundaries in the hour heading into the lunch break. That’s where England got back in the contest.
Thankfully for India, they had all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja to provide them control when they needed it the most. The ever-accurate left-arm spinner kept things tight. Finally getting to bowl a properly long spell in the series, Jadeja gave away only 36 runs off his 17 overs.
Jadeja helped India avert the need to bowl their trio of non-Bumrah pacemen a lot more on the day and, by tightening the screws, made sure England didn’t quickly overhaul the Indian lead.
Deservedly, Jadeja got a couple of wickets to his name near the end of the England innings. At the other end, Thakur came back to get a well-set Pope out on 81. The promising young English batsmen produced just the kind of innings his team needed when they were reeling at the start of the day.
But what really firmed up England’s ascendancy was the half-century from Chris Woakes (50) from No.9, as he took their lead to nearly a 100-run mark batting mostly with the tail. This was Woakes’ second big contribution on his comeback outing after taking 4/55 in the first-innings.
Following the change of innings, KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma batted with great confidence and clarity at the crease. They had their moments of good fortunes, but the duo was largely excellent in the way they handled the new Dukes ball against fresh England bowlers.
While Rahul made 22 by the close of play, Rohit stood 20 not out. The most impressive feature of their batting – not just this passage but all series – being how well they’ve played England’s seamers, including Anderson, from the back foot.
Though each batter has his own method at the crease, one can see merits if others in this Indian team decide to take a leaf out of their openers’ book and be flexible at the crease rather than opting for a predominant front foot stance outside the crease and making an excessive forward push on top of that.
With England still 56 runs ahead and still very much in control of the game, the focus will once again be on India’s struggling middle-order on Day 3.
Brief scores
India 191 & 43/0 (KL Rahul 22*, Rohit Sharma 20*; Chris Woakes 0/8, James Anderson 0/13) trail England 290 (Ollie Pope 81, Chris Woakes 50; Umesh Yadav 3/76, Jasprit Bumrah 2/67) by 56 runs
