It was the kind of day that must have left the rival skippers with mixed feelings.
Virat Kohli must be thanking his stars. After all, the poor catching and fielding did not cost much. At stumps on the first day of the third Test, India had more reasons to be pleased as England’s tally stood at 268 for eight.
After batting by choice, Alastair Cook watched with fingers crossed as England rallied from 87 for four in the first session and survived to fight another day.
Progressively, should the pitch deteriorate, England’s first-innings tally could dictate the course of the match.
No demons in the pitch
The pitch, subject of much scrutiny in the context of the series as it stands, held no demons. The bounce was expectedly slow and low, but not alarmingly variable. No doubt, it would increasingly help the slower bowlers.
England owes it to Jonny Bairstow, whose 89 proved instrumental in keeping the side on course to an effective, if not imposing, 300-plus total.
Walking in with scores of 46, 53 and 34 not out his in last three innings, Bairstow has proved he can bat in Indian conditions better than most of his more illustrious teammates.
But on this day, he showed why he averages over 40 in Tests. He was patient when the Indians spinners bowled a disciplined line. On the other hand, all his six boundaries came off the slower bowlers.
Four partnerships
Bairstow held together a crumbling innings with four successive partnerships — 36 with Moeen Ali for the fourth wicket, 57 with Ben Stokes for the fifth, 69 with Jos Buttler for the sixth and 45 with Chris Woakes for the seventh — and frustrated India.
His stroke selection was a lesson for some of his teammates, who chose valour over discretion and found their way to doom.
He was lucky on 54 when Parthiv Patel missed a stumping opportunity. Again, on 89, Parthiv dropped a catch. The second chance did not cost India as he was out leg-before to the next delivery and became Jayant Yadav’s second victim of the day.
In the first session, England stared at serious trouble despite neither the pitch nor the Indian bowling doing much. Barring Haseeb Hameed, who was surprised by the one that kicked from short of good length, and ballooned off the glove into the waiting hands of Ajinkya Rahane at gully, the other three wickets in the pre-lunch session were due to batsmen’s errors of judgement.
Twice dropped off Mohammed Shami, Cook wasn’t to be ‘third-time’ lucky. After Ravindra Jadeja missed a flier at slip and R. Ashwin dropped a sitter at short mid-wicket, Parthiv pouched a snick off Ashwin.
In fact, Cook’s departure was a double-blow for England within six deliveries of Joe Root’s wicket. The dependable batsman played all-over a delivery that came slowly off the pitch and caught him plumb in front.
The second session, considered to be the best for batting, saw an addition of 113 runs for the loss of only Stokes’ wicket.
The post-tea session went India’s way with three wickets — including one to the second new ball taken after 86.1 overs — falling for 63 runs.
Earlier, for this key battle, England expectedly made three changes with Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes and Gareth Batty coming in for Ben Duckett, Stuart Broad and Zafar Ansari.
For India, opener K.L. Rahul aggravated his forearm injury and Rahul’s Karnataka teammate Karun Nair, with an average of 52.68 in First Class cricket, made his debut, with Sunil Gavaskar handing the Test cap.
