02:07
Cracks are opening up – Pujara
England’s batsmen displayed impressive defensive skill on day four in Visakhapatnam to lift their hopes of a draw. But they still have to play out an entire day on a pitch that is no longer as trustworthy as it was before. There is substantial rough outside the left-hander’s off stump for Ravindra Jadeja to exploit from the Press Box End and R Ashwin has benefited from variable bounce at the Pavilion End.
More importantly, India were able to break through a remarkably stubborn opening stand when Haseeb Hameed was lbw to a grubber. They also dismissed Alastair Cook in the last over of the day and with a minimum of 90.4 more left in the game and 317 runs in the bank, they are confident of going 1-0 up in the series.
“We are happy with the way things went,” Cheteshwar Pujara said at the end of day four. “We got two wickets. We knew that it won’t be easy to get them out but we had our plans and we knew what we wanted to do. Ultimately we achieved what we wanted.
“Things wouldn’t come easy for us also. We know that they are capable of batting well, so we would’t take things for granted. Tomorrow we will definitely have to come hard at them. But we are prepared for it.
“When it comes to Test cricket, our bowlers and as a team we are prepared to be in a situation where we have to work hard for our wickets but when we see a victory, we know that we can get eight more wickets. I don’t know in how many overs but we have got a very good chance tomorrow, we will come hard tomorrow.”
After stumps on the fourth day, Virat Kohli rounded up his men in a huddle and was seen speaking animatedly to them. It seemed like he was getting them ready for a fight. Not the worst thinking considering that while there was help available to the bowlers, it didn’t necessarily equate to a torrent of wickets. India had to put in 59.2 overs of hard work to pick up two of them.
The main reason for that was how well Cook and Hameed batted. They added 75 runs in 50.2 overs, the third-longest opening partnership in the fourth innings of a Test in this country. India have broken through one blockathon before, against South Africa in Delhi last year. Can they do a repeat?
Pujara believes so. “I believe this wicket is such that if you play defensive, it is slightly difficult to get a batsman out but still as we saw today, there is low bounce. One or two balls from Ashwin bounced, from the rough. Jadeja was able to get a lot of bounce. Even if you play defensive also it is not easy, I don’t think it will be an easy task to bat on this wicket.”
Alagappan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo