Low bounce, high-flying Indian spinners make English batting bend and bow down to their wiles | Cricket News

The third day ended like the first and second. In twilight, the game in a delicious balance, neither England’s nor India’s, replete still with the prospect of turning either way. On the fourth day, India could complete a famous come-from-behind series win. Or England could level the see-sawing series and make the final Test in Dharamsala meaningful. In isolation this was India’s day—Dhruv Jurel led a fightback that reduced the deficit to 46 runs, Ravi Ashwin and Co. wrapped up England’s second innings for 145, and India’s openers shaved off 40 runs from the series-winning target of 192. India fought back from the brink, England failed to tw the knife, but there could yet be twirls and turns that could make a gripping fourth day.
The signs were promising for India. Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal—their presence significant in India’s pursuit—batted with stressless freedom, defending stoutly, punishing the loose balls and exchanging strikes. But the chase would be no straightforward exercise. New wrinkles are bursting; older ones are widening and deepening. “It’s rapidly deteriorating and we are looking to have a crack in the morning,” Shoaib Bashir said. The overnight moure would quicken the surface a tad; rolling (India used a light roller) would leave its impact.
India’s Dhruv Jurel in action. (Reuters)
Not to forget the pitch is already a difficult one to bat on. Uneven bounce is getting more pronounced. A good-length delivery reached Dhruv Jurel nearly on the second bounce, or as a yorker would. There is turn too, both slow and sharp. From some spots, the ball turned slowly; from an adjacent one, it would growl past the outside edge. The odd one leapt off. Run-making would require incredible skill, a tough mind and fortune. England spinners will throw all their wiles and heart into the game, Bashir promised; the fielders would exhaust all their physical and vocal energy, in the last-gasp effort to keep the series alive. Ben Stokes would plan and plot. The chase would not be for those with faint hearts.
Turn of English spinners next
Whether England’s spinners could match their India counterparts would probably define the game, and a natural extension, the series. Round One in this Test belonged to England spinners. The lanky off-spinner Shoaib Bashir out-bowled the more experienced Ravi Ashwin and Co. But India’s spinners recovered admirably well, bowled with more aggression, accuracy and intensity. Ashwin bowled like a man seized the sprit of his former captain Virat Kohli. None more illustrative than the Joe Root dismissal episode. He hit India’s first-innings nemesis on the pads with a flat, full ball, from around the stumps. The umpire refused his pleas. Rohit Sharma seemed mildly interested in reviewing. But Ashwin pestered him into reviewing, and as it turned the ball was indeed hitting the stumps. Ashwin jumped, as high as he could, roared, as loud as he could, and hit the air, as hard as he could. The wicket—England at 65 for 3— was a knockout blow. For Root, centurion in first innings, was England’s best man to shut India out of the game.
The off-spinner had earlier nipped out Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope off successive balls. With the new ball, he bowled both with the standard and parallel. The drifting-in standard-seamed version devoured Duckett. Drift beat him first, then the bounce the new ball generated. The ball climbed to take the inside edge from the upper half of his bat. Spooked low bounce, the ball that jumped a trifle more than the mean bounce on this pitch, deceived him.
Pope played for the turn that was not, off the parallel-seamed ball. It landed on the leathery part, didn’t turn at all, and skidded on. He returned to snaffle a stodgy Ben Foakes (with a full carrom ball) and James Anderson to complete his first five-for of this series. He imparted massive revvs into his ball and purchased more side spin. He would later tell the broadcasters: “I had to go back and rewire the game. The bounce is literally around shin height if I can say that, so had to bowl a lot of side spin, had to hammer into the pitch for the first part of the spell.” With the new ball, he could get a bit more speed too.
Wild celebrations followed every wicket. Sarfaraz Khan, especially, was a ball of energy, chirping, leaping and running around. He ran forward from long on and lunged to grasp a dipping catch off Tom Hartley at mid-on. Generally, there was more spunk on the field. Every half-chance taken, every run save would all count in the final piece on this little devil of a wicket.
If Ashwin rediscovered his rhythm, Ravi Jadeja regained his mastery of pace. He deliciously varied his pace, found turn and snap. The Jonny Bairstow-wicket ball was a handsome brute—it was slow and tossed up, upon landing it spun away and bounced to hit the driving willow of Bairstow. The ball ballooned into the hands of short cover. The strike, straight after tea, pulled England further into the spin mire. Between the strikes of his senior partners, Kuldeep Yadav expelled Ben Stokes (with a ripping stock ball that kept low) and Zak Crawley (with a well-laid trap of leaving the cover wide and inviting him to drive), who crunched to 60 off 91 balls. England lost the next six wickets for 35 runs.
Ashwin raved about Kuldeep: “We all know how much revvs he can put on the ball, what skill he has got. The change of pace that changes the trajectory, which he is willing to do now, I think that has made him double the bowler that he is.” Not to forget his 131-ball 28. All these little acts have set up the game for an engrossing fourth day.