Day 3
England 537
India 319/4
India trail by 218 runs with 6 wickets remaining in the 1st innings
Cheered on by his passionate but impassive father and his much more demonstrative wife, Cheteshwar Pujara scored an emotional century in the debut Test for his home ground of Rajkot. M Vijay complemented him with a more temperate defensive display of 126 off 301 balls to take India closer to safety after they had conceded 537 in five sessions on a pitch expected to become difficult as the game progressed. The 209-run partnership between Vijay and Pujara made them the most prolific duo for India since the start of 2010.
The pitch didn't deteriorate as much as expected, but to look at scores of 537 and 319 for 4 and conclude that it was a featherbed that produced boring cricket will be a disservice to the batsmen and bowlers who showed a lot of discipline and persistence. There was turn on offer but not variable, and there was a bare patch on a good length for seamers to work with. While for most periods of the day the England's bowlers kept the batsmen honest without necessarily threatening them, they will be disappointed the quicks failed to generate reverse and the spinners got cut and pulled regularly.
There was always something to work with, but whenever the bowlers got it right, Vijay and Pujara, who came together when Gautam Gambhir's feet got him into a messy tangle to the seventh ball of the day, worked hard to thwart them. Especially while having to go through almost scoreless periods against the seam of Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad. In the first session Woakes tested them with a five-over spell of six runs and three body blows for Pujara. In the second session Broad went 5-4-1-0, targeting that bare patch just short of a driving length. In the final session Broad and Ben Stokes asked questions with the new ball.
During the Woakes spell in the morning, 14 runs came in 10 overs. While Broad charged in mid-afternoon, 10 overs yielded 18 runs and a chance shelled by debutant by Haseeb Hameed at short cover. Unlike Pujara, Vijay had driven on the up to a ball that landed in that dry patch, and was reprieved on 66. India then welcomed DRS when Pujara successfully reviewed an lbw call when on 86, with extra bounce helping overturn the on-field decision.
While England didn't give the batsmen much to work with, the batsmen were good enough to recognise spells of play they could exploit. Scoring happened in spurts. Pujara came out and attacked Moeen Ali - out twice to the offspinner in 53 balls before this Test, he used his feet to disrupt his length. India had added 41 in nine overs to their overnight 63 in this period as Pujara raced away to 25 off 29.
Then came Woakes. He didn't just bowl short at Pujara, he bowled an excellent line, straight at his lid. Pujara, committing to the front foot almost every delivery, kept taking his eye off the ball while trying to sway. To his credit, Pujara never threw his hands up in self-defence, which would have brought the glove or the edge into play. Arvind Pujara, his father who was a wicketkeeper for Saurashtra, watched on without emotion. Puja, his wife, looked concerned.
Pujara scored 6 off 32 in these 10 overs. Once Woakes was done, England went to the man who makes things happen for them. This follow-up after that stranglehold was crucial with half an hour to go to lunch. Stokes, though, began with a half-volley second ball. Pujara's intent meant he was on to it to drive it to the cover point boundary. Then a straight ball was glanced away, and Pujara had found his flow again. From 118 for 1, India added 44 in this period of eight overs to own the session. In the space of 25 balls, Pujara hit six boundaries to double his score of 31.
Vijay at the other end had his own flow. For long periods of time you only noticed him when a possible two was kept to one because Pujara is not the quickest runner. Otherwise he would be leaving balls outside off, defending those at the stumps, and taking ones or twos only when they were too short or too straight. Vijay was there for his partner, though. After Pujara had been hit for the third time, he got right behind a ball in defence. At the non-striker's end, Vijay's bat went in the air, and the glove knocked it in applause, reassuring his partner that he just needed to get through that period of play.
This amount of concentration can be exhausting especially when you are going at a little better than a run every three balls like Vijay was. Vijay, though, had one tool at his disposal: the lofted shot against the spinners. Every now and then, without any rhyme or reason, never ostensibly looking for a release, he would step out to spinners and languidly chip them back over their head. He attempted it six times, hitting two sixes each off Moeen And Zafar Ansari, and a four each off Ansari and Adil Rashid. Those 32 runs were the lubricant for his innings, the final session of which he spent hobbling after being hit in the knee.
There was no spurt in the middle session in which 66 runs came. The drama in the middle session belonged to the Pujara family. Ansari's reintroduction brought the first bit of natural variation. Pujara was caught right in front, but given the bounce in the pitch - earlier a Rashid googly had failed to draw an lbw verdict because of that reason - and also with the reviews to be reset in 10 overs, he challenged the decision. Finally Arvind showed emotion, that of visible relief as his son, whose cricket has been his preoccupation for more than a decade, was allowed to go for the 14 runs needed to bring up his century.
Pujara gave everybody a nervous few minutes, spending eight balls on 99 before coming back after tea to score the 100th run. Then, against the run of play, Pujara steered the first ball of a new Stokes spell straight to first slip to be dismissed for 124. England still had an hour and a half to make further inroads. The plans and their execution was spot-on. The seamers bowled consistently around the sixth stump to Kohli, but the India captain seemed determined to not go after them even if it meant scoring just 1 run off the first 16 balls he faced.
If there was one criticism of Vijay's batting and Cook's captaincy, it revolved around Rashid. Cook underused his most threatening spinner of the day, and Vijay - for some strange reason, despite being such a good player of spin - played the wrong 'uns off the pitch. In what turned out to be the penultimate over of the day, Rashid got Vijay caught at short leg with a googly followed by Ansari snaring the nightwatchman Amit Mishra.
Not that it mattered now, but India ended the day 19 runs short of avoiding the follow-on.
Day 4
England 537 & 114/0 lead India 488 by 163 runs
The fourth day of the Rajkot Test ended as it began: with England needing some magic to give them a chance to win the Test. In between it seemed they had hypnotised two main India batsmen into unusual dismissals, but R Ashwin broke the spell with his 11th Test score of 50 or more. Then came a stage where, leading by 49 on first innings with four sessions to go, England seemed like the only side that could lose the Test. By stumps, though, Haseeb Hameed and Alastair Cook had put paid to any such notions, adding 114, to all but rule an England defeat out and leave them with an outside chance of winning on day five.
On a day in which so much seemed to have happened, eventually not enough happened off the pitch. However, to put the likely result of draw down to the pitch would be unfair. This match would have looked different had both teams held their catches. Even on the fourth day, England dropped two, taking the match count to nine between the two sides. The first of those proved to be crucial: England had taken two wickets for 12 runs, India were still 176 runs behind and they got a chance to end the sixth-wicket partnership short. Jonny Bairstow, though, dived over a low chance at first slip to reprieve Wriddhiman Saha.
Ashwin and Saha went on to add 64, becoming India's fourth-most prolific association since Saha became a permanent part of India's Test side late in 2014, and you could feel life going out of the Test momentarily. When Saha finally fell, having messed around with the spinners with cheeky sweeps and a loft for six, India were only 112 behind on a pitch that hadn't deteriorated as much as an Indian pitch usually does over four days.
There was turn, but no natural variation. There was no lateral movement for the quicks, and once again they failed to reverse the ball. There was enough in the surface, though, to make sure batsmen in deficit couldn't afford to take liberties against disciplined bowlers. Keeping that in mind, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane began the day sedately against Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes. Having seen them off, though, they fell against the run of play to give England a look-in.
Rahane saw a ball short from Zafar Ansari, but perhaps it was not short enough, which meant he ended up playing a half-flick and half-pull, missing the line as well. The ball kissed the top of the stumps. Three overs later, Kohli went back deep into the crease to pull a short ball from Adil Rashid. The extra bounce perhaps cramped him, which meant his front foot went back down the line of the stumps, as opposed to wide of them, when he swivelled. He ended up tickling the bottom of leg stump as he finished swivelling. Bairstow noticed the missing bail and appealed.
Ashwin looked just as good as Kohli or Rahane, and he didn't make any freakish errors. He was hardly ever beaten in the flight against spin. When he moved forward he reached the pitch of the ball thanks to his height. When he went back he did so having picked the shorter length early, and cut handsomely. India might not have a Ben Stokes as their allrounder, but Ashwin is the No. 1 allrounder on ICC ratings for a reason. He brought the temperament of a proper batsman. He didn't play low-percentage shots even as wickets fell, and farmed the strike with the last man for company, adding 29 runs with Mohammed Shami.
That wickets fell was down to Rashid's earning his captain's faith and getting extended spells. He drew bounce not out of loose parts of the pitch but through the overspin he imparted. He hit the shoulder of Ravindra Jadeja's bat and got Umesh Yadav out slogging against the turn. Ashwin and Shami kept them in the field until tea, and India came out buzzing after the break.
The buzz ended soon with the pitch not doing much for them. Hameed and Cook looked assured with Hameed taking the attack to the bowlers, lofting Jadeja, who had opened the bowling, for a six over long-off. India's bowlers have been unplayable on helpful surfaces, but they will have to live with the criticism that on a flatter pitch the visiting side bowled with better plans and discipline. With England bowling you could tell how they were looking to get the batsmen out. If there was a plan to India's bowling the execution was not spot-on: the seamers bowled loose balls both on line and length, and Amit Mishra continued to struggle for impact in a format where batsmen are not obliged to go after him.
Hameed and Cook kept cashing in, the youngster outscoring the veteran, as England reached 70 in 20 overs. India were forced into the defensive in the remaining 17 overs lest they be given about 80 overs to survive on the final day. England didn't go out of their way looking for runs now. Hameed reached his maiden fifty, in the presence of his family who have roots in Gujarat, with a late cut. By stumps the lead had reached 163, and England were on their way to giving India 70 or so tricky overs to bat out on the final day.
Day 5
England 537 and 260/3d drew with India 488 & 172/6
On a day that Alastair Cook scored his fifth Test century in India, the most by a visiting batsman, he came desperately close to registering an unlikely Test win, but his opposite number Virat Kohli and R Ashwin saw India through with a 14.2-over partnership after England needed six wickets in 25.2 of the minimum of 49 overs they had given themselves to win the Test in. As England bowled their overs quickly and got 52.3 of them in, Kohli, digging in, having a go at the team mascot for returning the ball too soon, casting rueful glances at his departing partners, hitting boundaries to eat up time, rescued India when they nearly threw it away through no experience of batting when to save Tests.
As much as Kohli's resistance, the lower-order runs in the first innings and some tight bowling at times, India could thank umpire Chris Gaffaney's interpretation that Ashwin was playing a shot when his bat would be hidden behind the pad and about a foot wide of the line of the ball. It arguably earned India nine overs.
Ashwin went on to survive 53 balls to go with Kohli's 98 to finish a Test that he will count as a good one despite taking only three wickets in the whole match. England, though, will consider it as a moral victory. Ashwin had to bowl 61 overs for third of those wickets after he had struck with the last ball of the first session of the Test. His match figures of 3 for 230 were keeping in with his overall average of 53.4 against England.
On the final day, Ashwin felt the need to bowl with a changed action, getting more side-on, rocking back on the right foot, which resulted in more pace and more rip, but all that it got him was economical figures. He conceded 31 runs in 13.3 overs, which might have had a part to play in the slightly conservative declaration: the asking rate for India was over six an over.
Having come so close in the end, England will wonder if they could have declared earlier - when the asking rate reached five perhaps - but only those who have worked extremely hard to get into lead will know the risks involved in giving a chance to an opposition that had won 12 last home Tests not affected by weather. They would have also taken into the equation the pitch, which was turning square in the end but when England batted it did so from the rough and not from the centre, which is what concerns most batsmen.
There will be those criticising the pitch, but they will do well to look at the number of missed chances that rose to 11 with Zafar Ansari dropping a tough chance from M Vijay and Stuart Broad shelling a dolly from Cheteshwar Pujara. Any of those wickets, coming at the back of Gautam Gambhir's duck, would have opened the Test up. Staying unbeaten would have helped Gambhir's case on a day that KL Rahul returned to first-class cricket. As he looks to revive his Test career, Gambhir did himself no favours by giving second slip catching practice after having played all around a straight delivery in the first innings.
Vijay and Pujara then calmed India's nerves for a bit before they got into an unusual drive fest against the spin of Ansari. Vijay had lofted him down the ground beautifully in the first innings, but this time got too close to one and failed to get the elevation. Drilled back at Ansar, this half chance hit the index finger of the right hand and popped out. The next offering, in the 11th over, went to Broad at point at about one-fifth the pace but popped out again.
By the time Pujara got out lbw to Rashid's legbreak that hit him in front of middle, which should mean that on a fifth-day pitch this had to be pitched outside leg, England had lost 5.4 valuable overs. Pujara's partner, Vijay, didn't help matters by looking away as opposed to being alert to a possible review.
This was just before tea. Soon after the break, Vijay was done in by Rashid's drift; playing at a delivery that pitched outside leg and came back to take his inside edge for a bat-pad catch. Ajinkya Rahane saw a short ball, shaped up to pull and exposed his stumps, and then ended up looking to cut as this Moeen Ali offbreak cramped him up. He was bowled off the pads, and you wondered if India - not the best at batting out draws - would mess this up too.
Either not trusting their defensive games or mindful of bouncing balls going to hand if they defended, Kohli and Ashwin too kept playing their shots. Except in one particular over when Ashwin exploited the umpires' leniency towards batsmen pretending to play at balls. On three occasions he was hit on the front pad well in front of and straight of the bat. On all three occasion, Gaffaney ruled not-out because he reckoned Ashwin played those balls. As much was confirmed when England challenged the middle call.
The DRS playing conditions have no room for the third umpire to overrule the on-field umpire on whether the batsman played a shot or not. Gaffaney told third umpire Rod Tucker Ashwin had offered his bat in his opinion. The replays returned an umpire's call here, but the other two were hitting the stumps flush.
Finally, though, India's need to attack got the better of them and Ashwin drove Ansari to short cover after having hit three fours in an Ansari over. India still had a minimum of 10 overs to survive. Wriddhiman Saha came out charging at the spinners, and was applauded by Kohli when he lofted one over mid-on. The charge got him soon as he offered a return catch to Rashid. This brought back memories of Adelaide when India had come close to an improbable target, but lost in a collapse triggered by Saha's forays down the wicket.
Kohli, though, stayed firm as the Test grew tenser in the last 10 overs. England tried everything. They brought all the fielders in, their reserve fielders sat the edge of the boundary to save time should India hit boundaries. One such boundary, hit by Ravindra Jadeja, bisected the two reserve fielders, but was returned promptly by Dharamveer, a specially abled man who travels to India matches and is allowed to watch from the boundary edge. Kohli let his annoyance known.
Kohli saved the match in his own way. He used his wrists to keep the ball down but kept driving hard at balls. In he 46th over, it nearly got him out as he looked to whip a sharp offbreak to midwicket. The ball, fortunately for him, fell straight of forward short leg. In his own way, Jadeja kept hitting boundaries with Rashid spinning the ball into him, and ended up with 32 off 33.
England will still be happy they pushed India after their batsmen had made the pitch and the bowling look easy. Cook became only the fourth visiting batsman to score 1000 runs in India, Haseeb Hameed registered the highest score for an England teenager but fell 18 short of what would have an emotional debut century in front of his family, and the promoted Ben Stokes scored a run-a-ball 29 to facilitate the declaration, but as it turned out England didn't have enough time in the end.
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