After the first day in Nagpur it was tricky to know which side was on
top. Twenty-four hours later there was a clear answer, after another
world-class display from James Anderson removed India's brittle top
order to leave them tottering on 87 for 4 at the close - a scoreline
that included failures for Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar - in
reply to England's 330.
Debutant Joe Root, the youngest player in the England side who compiled a
outstanding 73, and Graeme Swann, the oldest with a lively
half-century, had done the bulk of the scoring for the first part of the
day but throughout England's long occupation of the crease - 145 overs -
the one cry going up was 'wait for Sehwag', a player rarely dictated to
by conditions. In Anderson, though, England have a bowler who is also
able to transcend a pitch.
With his second delivery to Sehwag he produced a wicked inswinger which,
unusually for a Test opener, beat the outside edge to take out middle
stump. It was high-class pace bowling; it is an obvious thing to say
that batsmen are most vulnerable when they start, but it takes great
skill from a bowler to take advantage in such style. While it was not an
immediate end to India's hopes, Sehwag's early departure ensured that
England, even when they weren't taking wickets, would have been
confident of controlling the game.
The pitch was again the focus of much attention and there was just a
hint during the final session that it was starting to play a few more
tricks - albeit slow ones. England's spinners, Swann and Monty Panesar,
found a little more purchase than their India counterparts but that may
just have been because they bowled better.
Swann got one to turn and bounce at Cheteshwar Pujara although replays
showed it had come off elbow rather than glove towards short leg. That,
though, should take nothing away from the brilliance of Ian Bell's
catch, low to his right. Root had started the innings as bat-pad but,
after he failed to stay down for a half-chance offered by Pujara, the
role was given back to Bell. The position needs to be filled by the best
fielder for the role.
Pujara's departure led to a raucous welcome for Tendulkar but he was
never comfortable at the crease. Panesar ripped consecutive deliveries
past his outside edge before his other nemesis in the England side,
Anderson, removed him for the ninth time in Tests in his first over back
in the attack. Another tick for Alastair Cook.
Tendulkar, caught on the crease, got an inside edge into the stumps
having been caught playing off the back foot when everything to date in
the match has told batsmen to get forward. Anderson had become the most
successful bowler against Tendulkar in Test cricket. There is one more
innings in this series for Tendulkar, then who knows.
Gautam Gambhir, meanwhile, played what is becoming his template innings:
a couple of run-out scares, a few well-timed off-side boundaries and
then a wasteful end. Anderson did not even need to work him over,
instead Gambhir played a half-hearted drive to edge to Matt Prior. One
over later Anderson was given a break after a spell of 4-1-3-2. A case
when figures don't lie.
Although not as dramatic a session as when India collapsed on the third
evening in Mumbai or fourth afternoon in Kolkata it could prove just as
telling. It was the situation that England managed to avoid during their
innings, fully justifying the grafting approach which continued on the
second morning.
Root's highly accomplished stay, which began shortly before tea on the
first day and included a 103-run partnership with Prior, had spanned 229
deliveries when he finally gave a return catch to Piyush Chawla in the
afternoon session. His half-century had come from 154 balls and even the
loss of two quick wickets did not shake his concentration. If anything,
it prompted a few more attempts at innovation, with some deft paddles
and sweeps that would have made Graham Thorpe proud.
Swann, meanwhile, played a priceless innings to ensure that England did
not fritter away their position, which looked possible at 242 for 7, and
he dominated as much as anyone else had managed. He twice lofted
boundaries over deep midwicket against the spinners before lunch and
after the interval he became ever-more aggressive, but selectively so
rather than wild hacking.
He deposited Jadeja over long-on for the first six of the match and
after Root fell, closing the face as he tried to aim through the leg
side, Swann targeted the straight boundaries to reach his first
half-century since his career-best 85 against South Africa, at
Centurion, in 2009.
England had resumed on 199 for 5 and the familiar pattern of dead-batted
blocks was the order of the day. After an early burst from Ishant
Sharma it was all spin, which prompted both batsmen to remove their
helmets in favour of England caps, Prior's slightly more worn and
sweat-stained than the crisp, fresh-out-of-packet version Root was
wearing. This really could have been Test cricket out of the 1980s in
the subcontinent.
Steadily, though, England did begin to make useful progress. Any width
was latched on to by both players as Root cut Chawla through point and
Prior repeated the effort against Jadeja and another took him to his
fifty. Curiously, both Jadeja and, more so, Chawla, were given a bowl
before Pragyan Ojha, but in the end the breakthrough came from the man
who now appears the fourth-choice spinner having begun the series tipped
to be the major threat.
R Ashwin switched his line to around the wicket and floated a straight
delivery past Prior's outside edge. Prior was aghast that he had managed
to miss the delivery while Ashwin's celebrations were those of relief
as much as joy. India manufactured back-to-back wickets as Dhoni, in one
of his more alert and innovative pieces of captaincy in what has been a
passive series for him, immediately withdrew Ashwin from the attack in
favour of Sharma, who promptly trapped Tim Bresnan lbw with reverse
swing.
Sharma, though, could not bowl long spells and the movement he found
reinforced the feeling Dhoni would have been better served with another
seamer. How he must be wishing he had someone as good as Anderson.
0 comments:
Post a Comment