India was put through the wringer for the first time at home in four years by a visiting team’s spin department that did not have great bragging rights to flaunt. Off-spinner Moeen Ali was the most experienced and he had the left arm orthodox in Zafar Ansari and wrist spinner, Adil Rashid, with ability to bowl the back of the hand variety, to support.
Given the fact that Alastair Cook, who achieved a personal milestone of reaching 30 centuries chose to give his bowlers as little as 49 overs to skittle out the home team on a virtually powder top surface, the three, dictated by the circumstances of a pitch that had got worse in the last three hours of the first Test here, would have expected to bowl the most. They did, but India’s captain Virat Kohli halted them in their tracks with an outstanding display of attack and defence with the bat. He was the man of the hour during the second half of Sunday.
It was a heart in the mouth feeling for the biggest turn out in five days of the inaugural Test match in Rajkot and also for the home players in the dressing room, when the England spinners were in action. But Kohli calmed their nerves and proved that he is head and shoulders above the rest while trying to overcome a knotty and anxious situation. Kohli saved the first Test for his team with a remarkable show of grit, guts and gumption and most importantly demonstrated the technical proficiency that was absent among many of his colleagues.
After being in the vanguard of his team’s fight back, following another cheap dismissal of Ajinkya Rahane, who was probably undone by an Ali delivery that landed on the widest crack of a dry surface, Kohli returned to the safety of the dressing room with another feather in his cap. Local, Ravindra Jadeja’s boundary-hitting in the closing stages of the match that went beyond the mandatory 15 overs to meet the correct closure time of the clock, raised the entertainment quotient that was most welcome after the grim proceedings from some three quarters of an hour in to the long interval.
The England captain declared the second innings after parrying away the Indian attack with a great deal of comfort along with the wonder boy opener Haseeb Hammed. The 19 year old impressed for nearly four hours with a high-elbow defence, leaning into his defence and attack and using the crease, all of which added the element of appeal to his batsmanship. It was much against the run of play that he offered a straight forward catch to the third ball delivered by leg spinner Amit Mishra who escaped a no ball penalty by a fraction.
England’s opening pair had laid a solid foundation raising 180 runs, and when Mishra struck again forcing a top edge from Joe Root’s bat, it was a question of when Cook would declare to set a fourth innings target for the home team. Cook took a single to complete his century; it was classy and inspired Hameed.
Ashwin who had bowled to a field in nine overs in his first spell, got the wicket of the England captain when he lifted him to long off where Jadeja held the catch. His partner Ben Stokes shook hands with him before they walked towards the first floor dressing room, leaving India a target of 310 in 49 overs.
India began the fourth innings losing the wicket of Gautam Gambhir without a run on the board and with seamer Chris Woakes forcing an error from the left hander who steered a short ball to second slip, Root. Thereafter Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara seemed to be in no discomfort, although many deliveries turned, skidded and jumped. Cook rotated the three spinners, bringing in Ansari first. He dropped a hot chance when Vijay drove back hard and perhaps hurt his right hand.
The left arm spinner saw another catch spilled by Stuart Broad at backward point of Pujara, but England achieved a breakthrough when Rashid managed to get a leg before appeal in his favour from Kumar Dharmasena. Pujara walked without being told anything by Vijay and the replays confirmed that the ball had pitched outside the right hander’s leg stump. Pujara’s eye-line was nearest to the trajectory to know where the ball had pitched, but he did not press for the DRS. Vijay had already turned his back after the umpire had given Pujara out.
From 47 for 1, India slipped to 71 for four, when Ashwin joined his captain. There were at least five fielders around the bat, sometimes six with two forward short legs and a backward to bring the leg trap in to play, and also a silly point and slip when Ali was in action. Thankfully, Ashwin turned out to be the ideal foil. He got the benefit of the DRS once, but he and Kohli repaired the innings by playing out 15 overs. This partnership almost made sure of a draw, although the skipper and Jadeja had to play out ten overs before the umpires uprooted the stumps to signal the end of an absorbing Test match.
Kohli who fell a hit wicket victim in the first innings, never looked in trouble for the two hours and eight minutes and with Jadeja, he took his team to the safe result of a draw and the very idea of travelling to Visakhapatnam for the second Test would give him plenty of happiness.
Scoreboard
England (1st Innings) 537
India (1st Innings) 488
England (2nd Innings) Alastair Cook c Jadeja b Ashwin 130 (299m, 243b, 13 x 4s), Haseeb Hameed c & b Mishra 82 (235m, 177b, 7 x 4s, 1 x 6), Joe Root c Saha b Mishra 4 (9m,5b), Ben Stokes not out 29 (55m,29b, 5 x 4s), Extras (b-11, lb-3,nb-1) 15, Total (for 3 wkts in 75.3 overs) 260
Fall of wkts: 1-180 (Hameed), 2-192 (Root), 3-260 (Cook)
India bowling: Mohammed Shammi 11-1-29-0, Ravindra Jadeja 17-1-58-0, Ravichandran Ashwin 23.3-4-63-1, Umesh Yadav 11-2-36-0, Amit Mishra 13-0-60-2.
India (2nd Innings) Murali Vijay c Hameed b Rashid 31 (89m, 71b, 6 x 4s), Gautam Gambhir c Root b Woakes 0 (11m,6b), Cheteshwar Pujara lbw b Rashid 18 (56m, 36b, 2 x 4s),Virat Kohli not out 49 (128m, 98b, 6 x 4s), Ajinkya Rahane b Ali 1 (4m,5b), Ravichandran Ashwin c Root b Ansari 32 (57m, 53b, 6 x 4s), Wriddhiman Saha c & b Rashid 9 (13m, 13b, 2 x 4s), Ravindra Jadeja not out 32 ( 31m, 33b, 6 x 4s), Total (for 6 wkts in 52.3 overs) 172
Fall of wkts : 1-0 (Gambhir), 2-47 (Pujara), 3-68 (Vijay), 4-71 (Rahane), 5-118 (Ashwin), 6-132 (Saha)
England bowling: Stuart Broad 3-2-8-0, Chris Woakes 4-1-6-1, Zafar Ansari 8-1-41-1, Moeen Ali 19-5-47-1, Adil Rashid 14.3-1-64-3, Ben Stokes 2-1-1-0, Joe Root 2-0-5-0.
