Lunch India 354 for 7 (Jadeja 70*, Jayant 26*) lead England 283 by 71 runs
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Ben Stokes ended a 97-run stand by dismissing R Ashwin © Associated Press
Ravindra Jadeja produced one of his most mature Test innings to reach lunch with a career-best, unbeaten 70 to earn India a potentially match-defining lead of 71 on the third day in Mohali. His stand with R Ashwin was extended to 97 then he added a further 53 with Jayant Yadav to leave England with an increasingly difficult task to turn the game around.
Jadeja only had two previous fifties in Test cricket: his swashbuckling effort at Lord’s in 2014, which helped build a match-winning lead, and a brisk innings against New Zealand earlier this season which hastened a declaration. This was also the first time he had faced more than 100 deliveries in a Test innings in a display of self-restraint not always witnessed with his batting.
This was certainly not a tail-end jolly for Jadeja. On the second evening, when India had suffered a wobble for 4 for 56, he allowed Ashwin to take the lead and moved to 8 off 34 balls. He then sensed a moment to attack shortly before the new ball, but on the third day, except for a skip down the pitch against Moeen Ali, he did not attempt anything expansive.
His half-century came off 104 balls and was accompanied by the familiar swordsman celebration but it was the only bat throwing on display. Ben Stokes tried to pray on his patience by sending the ball wide outside off, as he had done to Virat Kohli, but Jadeja ignored them. He benefited from a bonus four runs when he took a sharp single to mid-on and Jake Ball’s throw was not backed up.
Ashwin was again not moving freely between the wickets – there had been no confirmation on what the problem was – meaning the potential for twos was restricted while he was at the crease. But his timing did not desert him until he was lured into a wider delivery by Stokes, in his first over of the day, and spooned a catch to Jos Buttler at backward point.
Jayant, in so many ways a younger model of Ashwin, from his role in the team to punching deliveries through the off side, made important runs in Vizag and collected two sweetly-timed boundaries off James Anderson. The ease with which India’s lower order played showed the pitch still did not hold many demons, but the psychological advantage of building this lead with the innings having been in the balance with Kohli’s dismissal will be significant.
Stokes was the most threatening of England’s attack with a seven-over spell that conceded just 17 and brought Ashwin’s wicket, but Alastair Cook employed some curious tactics by giving Moeen a couple of exploratory overs at the start of the day before introducing Anderson and holding back Stokes for 40 minutes with a Test in the balance. The lesser-spotted Gareth Batty was seen shortly before lunch and had bowled just eight of the 114 overs in the innings.
A sobering thought for England is that they have only ever won two Tests in Asia after conceding a lead and they were small deficits: seven runs against Pakistan in 1961 and 17 runs, also against Pakistan, at Karachi in 2000. The last visiting to side to win with a first-innings deficit in India was South Africa, at Mumbai, in 2000 but the biggest India lead overturned was 65 by Bob Simpson’s Australia in 1964. History is firmly against England.
Andrew McGlashan is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo