At 1.36pm on the third day in Visakhapatnam, with a round 200-run first-innings lead safely tucked away in his back pocket, Virat Kohli opted against enforcing the follow-on and with it delayed England’s next trial by spin on the subcontinent temporarily.
Kohli’s opposite number, Alastair Cook, knows all about the chuntering from the golf-mad commentariat that can result from such a call – Old Trafford against Pakistan last summer springs to mind – and yet on this occasion, with just under half the Test remaining and a pitch to wear further, few could groan at the India captain’s decision.
By forging ahead with the bat – India’s lead had swelled to 298 by stumps – Kohli made the eminently sensible choice, ruling out any remote chance of England performing a recreation of VVS Laxman’s incredible turnaround Test against Australia in 2001, forcing more miles into the legs of Cook’s bowlers and leaving the batsman time to ponder the ball’s ever-varying bounce off the strip of baked earth in front of them.
For all the fight displayed by Cook’s side on the third day, first through some northern grit by Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow with the bat, then later in Stuart Broad’s injury-defying opening burst with the new ball, their collapse on the second evening has meant this inaugural Test in the locally known City of Destiny has for some time felt locked on a set path towards a 1-0 lead for the home side.
The main question now is when Kohli eventually pulls up the ladder and thus, with rain as likely as an English green-top appearing this series, how many overs the tourists must try to resist.
South Africa produced the longest fourth innings ever witnessed in India in December last year with an epic blockathon that lasted 143.1 overs and yet still lost the match. England’s task could be similar when it comes round to strapping on the pads again.
Ravi Ashwin will be licking his lips at this prospect, having returned figures of five for 67 from 29.5 overs in the first innings. While England have long known about his talents with the bat given an average of 91 against them, this was the first time that his cocktail-shaking wind-up and delicate twiddling fingers have got the better of their batsmen and a far cry from the 17 wickets at 49 apiece from six previous encounters leading into this tour. The 30-year-old is the world’s No1 bowler for a reason, however, with 12 five-wicket hauls in 15 Tests coming into the series, and while he was kept quiet in Rajkot, England knew full well he would come to the party at some stage. Gone is the bowler of four years ago who appeared a box of tricks with no steady stock ball and in his place now is a wily craftsman who prides himself on relentless accuracy.
Key among his surgical strikes in this second Test, after Joe Root’s apparent brain-fade on day two, was that of Stokes for 70 following a beautiful ball that skidded on and some jiggery-pokery with the review system that merely concluded that the left-hander was out lbw, not caught at silly point. Stokes had, up until this dismissal, been producing the latest slab of evidence that his game is now up to the challenge on Asian surfaces.
Compiling 110 over 44.1 overs with Bairstow – and taking their alliance in 2016 to 772 runs, the most in the world – Stokes showed what a kick he is now getting out of self-denial, grinding out 157 balls and only occasionally emerging from his bunker to marmalise some grot off the back foot or sweep with the deftness of touch displayed by the female groundstaff that dust down the pitch here with their besoms during every stoppage in play.
The frustration at his eventual demise, prodding forward, was evident on the 25-year-old’s face as he thundered towards the pavilion at the wonderfully named Vizzy End and smashed his bat on the turf.
It was the polar opposite to that of Ashwin, who had finally seen the back of a player who represented both England’s last hope and the greatest long-term threat to his status as the world’s No1 all-rounder.
