England took five sessions – one of which was extended by half an hour – and just under 160 overs to score 537 at a rate of 3.36. After batting for four sessions minus that half hour, India have scored 319/4 at 2.94 runs per over. It’s safe to say that they will not be anywhere close to 540 at lunch on day four, or even half an hour after it.
This match is headed towards a draw and it was quite clear the moment England went past 450. But for a great Indian collapse under scoreboard pressure, there was going to be no other result. And after India showed no signs of collapsing on day three, it was also quite clear in which direction all the talk surrounding this match would go.
This Rajkot pitch has been like that highly anticipated thriller that you go to watch that does not live up to the expectations. You keep waiting for the thrills to arrive, but they never do. Ahead of start of play, Alastair Cook and his men would have seen the huge crack that had developed just wide of the off stump of the right hander at one of the ends. Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes and Ben Stokes all tried to exploit it through the course of the day, hoping it would spit out a cobra eventually. It never did.
After three days, the Rajkot pitch is still as flat as a pancake. India look set to bat for the major part of day four in a bid to reach and go past England’s total. So unless both teams agree to play a one-day match on day five with 45 overs a side, the series score going into Vizag for the second Test will still be 0-0.
That wasn’t to say there was no entertainment, whatsoever, on day three, at least for the hosts. Home boy Cheteshwar Pujara scored a hundred in Rajkot’s first-ever Test match after being hit on the helmet thrice in quick succession. Murali Vijay too scored his first century since Fatullah in June 2015. The two shared a 211-run partnership for the second wicket after England had dismissed Gautam Gambhir early in the day. Ninety four of those runs came in the first session itself, when India scored at a rate of 3.67.
The second session was a frustrating one for England, as catches were dropped, balls bounced over the stumps and there was no luck with DRS either. But if Ben Stokes had made his own luck on day two, it was Vijay and Pujara’s turn on day three. The two timed their innings beautifully and both deserved their tons. It was thus a shame that they could not convert their hundreds into bigger ones, as this was the perfect platform to do so.
Pujara fell right after tea for 124, which brought Indian captain Virat Kohli out to the middle. With an abysmal record against England to show, Kohli was at his watchful best, leaving anything outside off stump, as the seamers targeted the fifth-stump line. He had a few anxious moments, but was otherwise in perfect control. Vijay, meanwhile, continued to flay the English attack with beautiful foot- and wrist-work.
The two looked set to take India to stumps, before the pitch finally showed teeny-weeny signs of coming alive in the last two overs of the day. First, Adil Rashid’s googly got the extra bounce that foxed Vijay, who could only give a simple catch to Haseeb Hameed at short leg, ending his vigil at 126. Then, two balls later, left-arm spinner Zafar Ansari got nightwatchman Amit Mishra to also give Hameed catching practice, as India slipped from 318/2 to 319/4.
The two late wickets might just be the boost England needed to come back into this match. A few more quick wickets in the morning on day four and, suddenly, India could be close to being dismissed 100-150 runs short, which would give the tourists a great chance of snatching a win. But with Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja still left, a draw is still the most likely outcome.
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 319/4 (Murali Vijay 126, Cheteshwar Pujara 124; Ben Stokes 1/39, Adil Rashid 1/47) by 218 runs.
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