Two late wickets dent England's blockathon after Cook, Hameed and umpire's calls frustrate India

50.2 overs. That’s how long India took to get their first wicket in England’s fourth-innings chase of 405 on day four of the second Test in Vizag. For 301 balls, England openers Alastair Cook and Haseeb Hameed had blocked whatever India had flung at them. They had just 75 runs to show for their effort, at a miserly run-rate of under 1.5 an over, but that would have hardly mattered. These two were as traditional as opening Test batsmen can get. They were probably not even thinking about the target, as Michael Atherton in the commentary box said he had done during his nearly 11-hour vigil in Johannesburg in 1995, which earned England a draw after batting for 165 overs.

England would have to bat a similar number of overs in Vizag if they are to escape with a draw. Cook and Hameed had batted for a third of those overs and frustrated India. The home team had even lost both their DRS reviews to the dreaded umpire’s call within the space of six balls. It was not going well. Then, Ravichandran Ashwin’s stock ball kept low after pitching outside off and almost rolled onto Hameed’s pad just above the foot and bang in front of the stumps. Ashwin did not even bother asking the umpire whether that was out.

The pitch in Vizag has quite surprisingly held up till the end of day four. There were the odd balls that skidded off the surface and kept low, some that bounced higher than expected, but it was nowhere near unplayable. This was the pitch that was expected to crumble from day two. India will hope and pray it starts to crack open at least on the final day.

But if India wanted to know how to bowl on the track as it was, they only had to look at Stuart Broad’s mammoth eight-over spell in the morning that yielded two wickets. Broad bowled for around 80 minutes straight – on one good leg – after being asked to start the proceedings, with India sitting on a comfortable 198-run lead with seven wickets in hand. Broad is a doubtful starter for the third Test in Mohali after aggravating a foot injury on day two and it was almost as if England captain Alastair Cook wanted to squeeze everything out of him before this match ends.

The 30-year-old pacer was outstanding on his one good leg, picking up two crucial wickets with some brilliant late cutters. It was a masterclass for fast bowlers on how to bowl on a slow Indian pitch and Cook will sorely miss his services if he does get benched in the next match because of injury. His height allowed him to get that extra bit of bounce and coupled with the uneven spring off the surface, the Indian batsmen were on their toes. Ajinkya Rahane and Ravichandran Ashwin could not last long against him.

At the other end, Adil Rashid provided good support, chipping in with the wickets of Wriddhiman Saha and, then, the big one of Virat Kohli. However, credit for Kohli’s wicket had to go to the athleticism and reflexes of Ben Stokes, who caught the Indian captain in the slips for the second time in the match with a brilliant diving effort to his right that would have made David De Gea proud. Kohli had batted superbly on the deteriorating pitch and fell short of a second hundred in the match by 19 runs, but each of the 81 he scored were worth double their value considering the surface.

Rashid took two more wickets to reduce India to 162/9, before Jayant Yadav and Mohammed Shami frustrated England with an attacking last-wicket partnership that took the lead past 400. India were eventually bowled out for 204, giving England a target of 405 to win the match, which would be an Asian record if they manage to do it. All of England’s good work in the morning seemed to have been undone by that one 42-run partnership, before Cook and Hameed walked out to bat for the second essay in the afternoon and entered a blockathon.

They were beaten quite a few times by the Indian pacers and spinners, young Hameed had even took one short delivery on the chest, but they did not allow anything to ruffle them. Kohli introduced spin in the form of Ashwin in the sixth over itself, but even he, who took a fifer in the first innings, was unable to break through their defences. India erred by not bowling in the right areas. The pacers did not make the two openers play the ball as much as they should have, while Jadeja did not target the rough outside Cook’s off-stump until the 36th over of the innings.

However, Hameed and Cook both fell in the space of nine overs – to Ashwin and Jadeja – to leave England at 87/2 at stumps. India will bowl at two new batsmen at the crease on Monday morning and should have their tails up. But England have done enough to show that they are not going down without a grapple.

Brief score:

India 455 (Virat Kohli 167, Cheteshwar Pujara 119; Moeen Ali 3/98, James Anderson 3/62) and 204 (Virat Kohli 81, Jayant Yadav 27*; Stuart Broad 4/33, Adil Rashid 4/82) lead England 255 (Ben Stokes 70, Joe Root 53; Ravichandran Ashwin 5/67, Mohammed Shami 1/28) and 87/2 (Alastair Cook 55; Ravichandran Ashwin 1/28, Ravindra Jadeja 1/25) by 317 runs.