India v England, 4th Test Day Three: Five Things We Learned

A day of toil, joy and more toil for England saw India take a 51-run lead and, perhaps, the series. Here’s what we learned from an absorbing day three in Mumbai…

MAN OF THE DAY – Virat Kohli (147*)

Quite simply, one of the best knocks of 2016. In context, weight and brute thuggery, it has to be up there as one of Virat Kohli’s finest. He came to the crease after the second ball of the day and was cheered off by all inside the stadium – including the England team – with 147 to his name. He’ll begin again tomorrow, on a typically bloody-minded quest to give India the biggest lead possible. Seeing him in this mood, it may well end up being an insurmountable one. In the process of scoring his 15th Test hundred, from 187 balls, Kohli brought up a few other milestones in the process: 4,000 career Test runs, more than a thousand in 2016, over 500 in the series and, currently, averaging over 50 in all three formats of the game. He was dropped on 68 but, make no mistake – watching Kohli today and in the last two Tests has been to watch greatness.

RASHID’S TOIL

Rarely has Adil Rashid worked harder in an England shirt, soiled by the red clay of Mumbai, no doubt mixed with equal parts blood, sweat and tears. The brunt of his work came in a long, agonising spell that started promisingly but ended with an array of long hops from around the wicket that gifted Kohli some boundaries through midwicket. Rashid bowled 31 overs unchanged, taking the wickets of Murali Vijay and Ravi Jadeja, as well as beating Kohli’s edge enough times to earn the India captain’s respect. But just as Rashid looked to be turning the game England’s way, in an afternoon session that saw four wickets fall for 101 runs, Rashid dropped a caught and bowled chance to see off Kohli and that, you sensed, was that for England’s hopes of saving this series.

THE BELL TOLLS FOR COOK

That Rashid was left to bowl so many on the bounce raised some questions. England picked six bowlers – not including Root – yet Rashid bowled 44 overs, Moeen Ali 45 and the four quicks just 45 between them. For the last two years, England have built pressure operating with a spinner and seamer in tandem. And with just two spinners for this match, it was a plan they should have stuck to. To give Cook his dues, his decision not to take the second new ball was vindicated by the wickets in the afternoon session. But when Jadeja had started to show some application, a newer, harder ball would have caused more problems. Instead, a collapse of 45 for four was folllowed by a partnership of 57 for the seventh wicket that effectively took the wind out of England’s sails. Cook’s delay in taking the new ball was compounded by a chance generated in just the third over with it, only for Joe Root to drop Jayant Yadav at second slip. It has been a long winter on the subcontinent and the edges of this tour are well and truly frayed. Cook’s run as a reluctant captain is likely to be coming to an end. There was something symbolic, too, in the fact that Root, captaining while Cook was off the field, brought himself on to bowl and, with his fourth delivery, had the wicket of Parthiv Patel.

KARMA

When Parthiv Patel fired shots at “lucky” Jos Buttler, taking down England’s “exposed” in the process, while bogging up how own side’s expertise against the turning ball, he should have known that Mother Cricket was watching on. And so, today, he fell victim to the game’s own karmic justice. First ball, he edged Ali over the heads of the slips before falling victim to Joe “bowling average of 52” Root for just 15. Yah Parthiv, talk nah.

WHAT NEXT

We saw in the last Test how a three-figure lead can muddy England’s approach and the tourists will almost certainly be staring at a similar deficit by lunch tomorrow. Hopefully, India will be all out by then. Trevor Bayliss will hope they have learned from their mistakes in Mohali and take the more proactive route hye preached before this match. Easier said than done, of course, but tomorrow really is do our die. Who knows what Ravi Ashwin has in store on day four. Either way, England need to come out fighting tomorrow.