England 34 for 1 (Root 22*, Hameed 9*) trail India 455 (Kohli 167, Pujara 119, Ashwin 58, Moeen 3-98) by 421 runs
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02:29
Compton: Moeen’s pace, direction make him effective
Joe Root and Haseeb Hameed dug in after the early extraction of their captain, Alastair Cook, as England embarked on a long slow road towards parity in the second Test against India at Visakhapatnam. By tea on the second day, the pair had chiseled together a 30-run stand for the second wicket against a tight and threatening new-ball attack, in response to India’s first-innings 455.
The early signs in England’s innings were that India’s total, built upon Virat Kohli’s and Cheteshwar Pujara’s 226-run stand on the first afternoon, would take some matching. Hameed had ground his way to 9 from 43 balls at the break, showcasing once again a solid technique and an equally impressive temperament, while Root – a centurion at Rajkot last week – seemed to adapt his approach to counter the low skiddy bounce, at one stage advancing on Mohammad Shami to clip him aggressively through midwicket for four.
Given the success earlier in the day of Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid, who had claimed five wickets between them to limit India’s advantage, India’s spinners will bring with them a different challenge as the innings progresses. Ravi Jadeja was given three exploratory overs before the interval, and nearly grubbed his way through Hameed’s defences with his first delivery, before R Ashwin was thrown the ball for the final over of the session. But overall England could take some encouragement from their resilience to date.
It hadn’t looked too promising in the early moments of England’s innings, however, and Cook in particular lived dangerously in his 11-ball stay. He all but popped a leading edge back to the bowler in Shami’s opening over, but could do nothing about the beauty that bowled him in his second. After being lined up by two deliveries that curled away to the slips, Cook was beaten by a sensational nipbacker that smashed the off stump in two as it nipped back through the gate.
That England were batting at all at this stage of the day was testament to their determined efforts with the ball in the morning session. Moeen, who had been underused on the opening day of the match, claimed three quick wickets in the second hour of the morning, including the vital scalp of Kohli for 167, before Rashid and Ben Stokes mopped up the resistance after lunch.
The main source of runs for India today was Ashwin, who made 58. He was lucky to benefit from drop at slip by Stokes when he had made 17, but the unlikely let-off had a spin-off benefit for England. India ran a single as the ball ricocheted off Stokes’ knee at slip, and one ball later, Stokes made amends by snaffling a faster, lower edge to his right to see off India’s main man, Kohli, instead.
After a sedate start from England’s seamers, who kept things tight but found little movement with the still-new ball, Moeen had needed just nine deliveries to make his presence felt. And two deliveries after the drinks break, he had doubled his tally for the innings. Wriddhiman Saha played back to a big turner from outside off, was struck on the knee roll, and after an interminable pause for thought from umpire Kumar Dharmasena, he was sent on his way lbw for 3.
Saha was plumb as it happens, but Dharmasena’s indecision possibly helped persuade him to use one of India’s reviews. Two balls later, the reverse was true: up went the umpire’s finger as Ravindra Jadeja was pinned on the front pad, and off he trooped for a duck, even though the ball was this time shown to have been missing leg.
At 363 for 7, India were in danger of subsiding meekly, but Ashwin was joined by the debut Jayant Yadav, who showed good temperament as well as a decent technique against Stokes’ short ball. Together they added 64 for the eighth wicket, but after Stokes had grazed Ashwin’s edge to give Jonny Bairstow a simple catch behind the stumps, Rashid wrapped up the tail, though not before some entertainingly lusty blows from Umesh and Shami.
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo