Saturday is traditionally moving day but no one moved very quickly on the neat green turf here. This did not diminish the entertainment –there was tension in abundance. For England fans, every single was a treasure, a boundary was like gold dust, a wicket a minor calamity.
India offered no free gifts; they were fiercely disciplined, yet patient on a surface that was never entirely reliable but had lost some of its pace. Moreover, there are few more holes emerging for the spinners to aim at. India had to earn most, though not all, of their wickets. Oddly enough, their free gifts came in the form of Yorkshiremen – and crucial scalps they were.
The match remains deliciously in the balance. Jos Buttler, unexpectedly England’s highest Test run-scorer in the summer of 2018, contributed a vital 69 when the innings was threatening to subside. This enabled England to be 260 for eight at the close, a lead of 233. There was also a polished 48 from Joe Root plus gritty knocks from Keaton Jennings and Ben Stokes and another little gem from Sam Curran. So Sunday’s play should be a treat.
Run-scoring was seldom easy and that was certainly the case for the openers. As ever, Alastair Cook looked more out of runs than out of form before edging into the increasingly more reliable hands of KL Rahul at second slip. How would Root cope with yet another early dismissal? We would have to wait a while to find out because, to mild consternation, Moeen Ali came out at No 3.
One suspects that Moeen would happily sweep the dressing rooms after play before driving the team bus home if asked to do so – it is odd that he does not get plonked at short leg in this team.
He will do whatever is required of him. He may well have wanted to bat at No 3; in the longer term, he would probably welcome the role on a more permanent basis. But it was a surprise to see him.
The ploy did not work but this does not mean it was a bad one. Cricketers are naturally conservative and often superstitious. They like order and routine but there is nothing wrong in being flexible in the middle of the game. It is to Moeen’s credit that he undertook a task that is currently something of a poisoned chalice. On this occasion he edged against Ishant Sharma on nine and Rahul took an even better catch.
Now Root appeared and he and Jennings dug in until just before lunch. They were watchful, though. Jennings did manage to take 10 runs from a Ravichandran Ashwin over with a variety of sweep shots. But in the final over of the session he was taken on the pad when facing Mohammed Shami and against his better judgment he was persuaded by Root to review the decision, a wasteful piece of advice.
Just over 40 minutes later, Shami’s next delivery was propelled at Jonny Bairstow, restored to his favourite position at No 5, and he missed it. The ball sailed between bat and pad as Bairstow attempted a drive and he walked off briskly without bothering to survey the damage. One hopes Bairstow does not enter a mindset that tells him he cannot score runs for England unless he is the wicketkeeper.
Stokes, blocking resolutely as usual, eked out another 30 runs alongside Root, who found it much simpler to get off strike. Eventually, Stokes played one impish shot, shimmying down the pitch to Sharma and punching a straight drive to the boundary. Next ball he summoned Root for a single after driving the ball straight to mid-on; it was a poor call by Stokes aggravated by poor running from Root, who failed to dive for home and was beaten by Shami’s throw. Root, who had batted gutsily for his 48, joined Cheteshwar Pujara as the only Test batsmen to be run out twice this year.
Buttler, like Root, found run-scoring less of a problem than Stokes as they sought to repair the innings. For the moment, the Botham comparisons for Stokes are in abeyance; he has become the Barnacle, the modern-day Trevor Bailey batting as if there is currently crisis or, at the very least, an imminent one. In some ways, his self-denial is admirable since this quality has been in short supply in England’s lineup and his efforts were valuable to the cause. However, he is not batting naturally and this diminishes him at the crease, which was highlighted by his dismissal. The final ball of his vigil came from Ashwin; it was a half-volley, which he prodded at defensively and it ended up in the safe hands of Ajinkya Rahane at slip.
Sam Curran joined Buttler and he had no qualms about batting naturally. For the first time in the day, runs came freely; throughout his innings, Buttler had been alert to every scoring opportunity while continuing to bat in red-ball mode. But on 69 he fell to the new ball, lbw to Sharma when aiming to drive on the leg side.
Curran remained positively impish and in the final half-hour his partnership with Adil Rashid was worth 27 runs, but as Rashid edged the last ball of the day to the keeper, the pendulum had swung once again.
