The plan was clear. The pitch was not turning yet, and neither of England’s three spinners were making much headway, so Alastair Cook switched to his plan B: use the fast bowlers and try bounce the batsmen out.
Cheteshwar Pujara is not the most comfortable batter against short deliveries, while Virat Kohli is, using one of Sunil Gavaskar’s favourite phrases, a compulsive hooker. James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes had one job: bowl short and into the two right-handed batsmen.
Kohli had top-edged Anderson earlier in his innings and the ball fell safely in the vacant long-leg area before rolling to the fence. Cook eventually got a fielder to patrol it. Then, in the over before the drinks break in the post-lunch session, Stokes induced another hook-slap from the Indian captain. The ball went high in the air as Adil Rashid ran to get under it. It was touch-and-go, but Rashid did get his hands to the ball before it dropped, even if it was a low, sharp chance. That was the in-form Indian captain on 56. The look and colour on Stokes’s face was one to savour for Indian fans.
The only other time England came close to getting a wicket in the session was when England reviewed a leg-before decision off the bowling of Rashid. The umpire had ruled that Pujara was struck outside the line and Hawk-Eye concurred.
Apart from this, the two Indians were brilliant. They placed some exquisite shots, were extremely pleasing to watch and gave the schoolkids-heavy Vizag crowd plenty to cheer about. The team’s fourth 50, which took the total past 200, came off just 50 deliveries. One of the best shots of the session was when Pujara pierced an 8-1 offside field with a cut off Broad, which took the batsman to 96 and led the bowler to give a defeated look.
So good had Pujara and Kohli batted that a stray dog that had somehow found its way into the stadium decided to get a better view and brought an early tea – by four balls. Pujara was stranded on 97 and, although, it did look like he saw the funny side of it, he would not have been too pleased to have his tea three runs away from a 10th Test hundred. However, he would be used to it by now, having similarly walked off on 99 in the first Test.
The dog episode was perhaps the only time the England players came close to a smile in the entire session, in which they conceded 118 runs. Cook was perhaps at fault for taking 39 overs to realise that he has Moeen Ali in his arsenal. Considering the third spinner on paper, Zafar Ansari, was used as early as the 11th over of the innings, it was a real puzzler as to why Ali was ignored for so long.
It’s been some turnaround of fortunes for England, who were on top less than half an hour into the first session after losing the toss. Broad and Anderson sent both Indian openers back within minutes of the start. KL Rahul was set up brilliantly by Broad, who bowled a relentless and accurate fifth-stump line before eventually drawing the right-hander into poking at him. Stokes made no mistake in the slips. Murali Vijay cracked a few delightful boundaries and was looking in great touch, before Anderson got one to bounce unexpectedly and clipped the batsman’s glove. The ball popped up in the air and Stokes was there again to pouch it at gully.
India 22/2. Anderson and Broad the wicket-takers. And remember, this was not the cloudy and seam-friendly United Kingdom. This was supposed to be a rank turner. The home crowd, mainly school children, was silenced in less than 30 minutes of the start of play. This was not how it was supposed to be. India were in danger of collapsing, but thankfully for the hosts, Pujara and Kohli were there, again, for the rescue. At tea, India had recovered to 210/2.
Brief score:
India 210/2 (Cheteshwar Pujara 97*, Virat Kohli 91*; James Anderson 1/25, Stuart Broad 1/32) vs England.
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