England v India:
1st Test, Day 3
Odds on a
Draw?
November 11th 2016
To look at
the pitch one would expect it to be difficult. It is a strange mottled colour
with plenty of green, especially around the centre and a crazy paving of
cracks. Yet so far it has produced 846 runs for 14 wickets, with several of the
wickets falling as batsmen tried to force the pace.
There are
plenty who think that England’s 537 was at least 60 under par and for a large
part of the day India made the prospect of getting a healthy first innings lead
and giving England an unpleasant final afternoon a real possibility. It may yet
happen, but the impressive discipline of the England attack has made it quite
unlikely unless something very strange happens tomorrow.
Broad and,
more surprisingly for most, Adil Rashid, went for under 3 an over. Chris Woakes
has the extraordinary figures of 23-5-39-0. Of the three front-line spinners
used by India, only Jadeja had better economy than the England trio. Although
India batted through the afternoon session without losing a wicket, just 63
runs accrued from 29 overs, ending any thoughts that India might have had of
taking the lead by Lunch tomorrow.
While India
had two centurions, one was scoring at a strike rate of just over 40 – in fact,
all the Indian batsmen bar Pujara have scored at around 40 – and neither went
on to the big hundred that India needed. Better still, two wickets in the last
4 balls on the day have changed the look of the scoreboard. It is still very
good for India who will need to play very badly to lose from here, but a wicket
for Adil Rashid to an excellent googly, followed by one to Zafar Ansari, who
took just two balls to remove the nightwatchman. Both Ansari and Adil Rashid
needed the confidence boost, as did Haseeb Hameed, who had missed one quite
gettable chance earlier, but took these two, sharp opportunities that have opened
a window of opportunity for England. India are still 218 behind and a lead of
100 is still possible for England. If they can get it, we could still be in for
an interesting last day because, surely, the pitch will deteriorate on Day 4.
Were a couple of wickets to fall in the first hour, India might just start to
get nervous.
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