In the five sessions that they were on the field, India had plenty of moments of frustration. From five dropped catches, to skiers dropping in no man’s land, to close leg-before-wicket calls, Indian captain Virat Kohli and his men saw and endured enough to have steam flow through their ears.
In the second session of day three, it was England’s turn to be frustrated. The Indians had responded well to their huge 537-run deficit in the two preceding sessions, knocking off 163 runs from it at the loss of just one wicket. Apart from that one wicket of Gautam Gambhir, the only other instances when England came close to a wicket was when Chris Woakes exploited Cheteshwar Pujara’s dislike for chin music and rapped him on the helmet three times. But apart from those three deliveries, Pujara and his partner Murali Vijay had been completely on top of the English bowlers. India scored at just under four runs an over in the morning session of day three, with both batsmen reaching their half-centuries via boundaries.
Then, in the second session of the day, leg-spinner Adil Rashid bowled a googly that completely foxed Vijay. The ball hit the batsman’s front pad in line and on the knee roll. Adil and England went up in a big appeal, but the umpire rightly reckoned it would miss the stumps on bounce. Adil wanted to review it, but Alastair Cook was wise enough to not give into his bowler’s plea, which would have lost England a valuable review.
Stuart Broad, who had taken England’s only wicket, was then brought into the attack, with the task of aiming for a huge crack just wide of the off stump of the right-hander. With the experience of 100 Tests behind him, he was spot on with his accuracy, but did not get any help from the crack. However, he did soon get Vijay to hit him towards Haseeb Hameed positioned at short extra cover, but the 19-year-old spilled what should have been a straightforward catch.
England were still trailing 1-5 in the dropped catches tally, but they would have been feeling some frustration by then. Spinners Rashid, Moeen Ali and Zafar Ansari had had some other close calls too, with the cracks slowly opening up. On 85, Pujara’s sweep off Rashid found his top edge, but the ball landed safely. On 87, Ansari managed to rap Pujara’s back pad bang in front and umpire Chris Gaffaney agreed it would hit the stumps. India used their first review of the innings and Hawk-Eye showed the ball would have bounced above the stumps. In the last over before tea, Vijay almost chopped Ben Stokes’s delivery back onto his stumps.
But if Ben Stokes had made his own luck on day two, it was Vijay and Pujara’s turn on day three. The two had batted very positively so far, taking on both the spinners and the seamers in the first session, and then wisely dropped a gear when they realised the pitch was slowly showing some signs of life. At tea, Pujara is a run away from a Test century on his home ground, while Vijay too looks like a sure bet to get there early in the last session of the day. As the players went off for the break, with India at a comfortable 228/1, England will now that they have a long grind ahead. India’s run-rate may have dropped in the post-lunch session, but they look well on their course to getting near, if not getting past, England’s 537 but for a spectacular collapse.
Brief score:
England 537 (Ben Stokes 128, Joe Root 124, Moeen Ali 117; Ravindra Jadeja 3/86, Mohammed Shami 2/65, R Ashwin 2/167) lead India 228/1 (Cheteshwar Pujara 99*, Murali Vijay 86*) by 309 runs.
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