Once again the fresh faces led the way in a Test match that is keeping everyone transfixed. It looks like one of those beauties where every boundary and every dismissal changes the balance immediately. And the chances of a draw have long since faded.
Moeen Ali and Sam Curran were to the fore again, while India were indebted to their self-effacing grafter, Cheteshwar Pujara, who provided the backbone of their innings.
Moeen, on what must be one of his favourite Test grounds – he took six for 67 at Southampton against India four years ago – somehow managed to torment a side who are supposed to be able to brush aside spinners with their eyes shut.
That is more or less what they did to Moeen in India two years ago. But England’s second spinner is on one of his streaks when everything clicks and the brains had the good sense to pick him. He finished with five for 63 from 16 eventful overs; India were bowled out for 273, a lead of 27, and the game is on a knife-edge. What of Curran? Well, he bowled as well as any of the others but took only one wicket. However, it was Virat Kohli’s and in this series that dismissal has a major impact on the mood of both sides.
Just as India under Pujara’s watchful guidance seemed poised to go a long way past England’s total on a day when the ball seemed less inclined to misbehave Moeen took four wickets in 16 balls. There was some assistance from the pitch but rather more from India’s batsmen, who are supposed to be undermined by swing rather than spin. It was not a five-wicket haul of the greatest pedigree since most of Moeen’s victims were from the lower order but it was still a critical intervention.
The assumption was that the pace attack would have the greatest impact even though the skies were brighter than on the first day and the pitch a little drier. However England’s senior citizens did not start well. Then Stuart Broad had KL Rahul lbw and, as is so often the case with him, his rhythm returned and he became a threat. By his own high standards Jimmy Anderson was not on song and would finish wicketless in a completed Test innings for the first time in 13 months.
By noon Broad had removed Shikhar Dhawan, whose open-faced bat edged to Jos Buttler behind the stumps. Now Pujara and Kohli buckled down amid a testing spell from Curran; Kohli passed 6,000 runs in Test cricket; Pujara, despite a few outside edges, was somewhere near his pragmatic best. Root used six bowlers in that first session and none were from Durham, from which we discerned Ben Stokes, like Jonny Bairstow, is not fully fit.
Moeen had obviously impressed his captain just before lunch since he continued after the interval, first alongside Broad and then Curran, who was the man to make the vital breakthrough. Kohli came forward – one hesitates to say lunge with such a great batsman – and the ball took the outside edge of his bat, whereupon Alastair Cook at first slip took a fine low catch.
At last England had a foothold; Root introduced Stokes and soon after he dropped a tough catch off him at second slip but the miss was not expensive since before long Ajinkya Rahane was lbw for 11. Stokes may be carrying an injury but he bowled with as much venom as anyone as Rahane and Pujara, who was hit on the head by a bouncer, could testify. However he was allowed only one seven-over spell.
Now England turned the screw. Remember how Rishabh Pant hit his second ball in Test cricket for six. Well, here the peculiar tension of this format of the game would afflict him. He faced 29 balls without scoring and was out lbw prodding forward to Moeen just before tea.
After the break Moeen caused havoc against an India lower order that, initially, were not inclined to hold their end up for Pujara. They fell like skittles. Hardik Pandya flicked elegantly towards short mid-wicket where Root took an excellent diving catch; Ashwin tried an extravagant reverse sweep and was bowled and next ball Mohammed Shami played down the wrong line and lost his off-stump. Suddenly India were 195 for eight but, as was the case on Thursday, the last two wickets prospered, a circumstance that suggests the pitch is not misbehaving a great deal.
Ishant Sharma hung around until caught at bat/pad off Moeen while 32 more runs were added. Then there was an even more frustrating last-wicket stand for England that mustered a morale-boosting 46. Pujara by now had dispensed with passivity and had become the conductor of the band with Jasprit Bumrah a resolute accomplice. He scored his 15th Test century and was skipping around the crease when the field was up, improvising lofted boundaries one moment and stealing the strike the next. He even ran between the wickets with assurance.
England had four overs to face at the end and, given the form of the openers, this may not have been comfortable viewing from the dressing room. Kohli opened with Ashwin, who has been one of Cook’s tormentors this summer. Keaton Jennings had to deal with Bumrah. Both survived. It felt like a minor triumph.
