India's seamers hit back after Cook, Ali half-centuries
Joe Root won his fifth toss in succession and elected to bat, meaning that the day would start with Cook, England’s leading Test runscorer, opening the batting in his final Test match. He was given a guard of honour by India as a show of respect, but when play started the pleasantries ended, there was all the competitiveness and fight expected of a Test match.
Cook and Keaton Jennings will both have been desperate for a score for very different reasons – Cook to sign off from Test cricket in style, and Jennings in order to book himself on the plane for this winter’s tours of Sri Lanka and the Caribbean.
They were confronted with the easiest batting pitch of the series and duly put on England’s highest opening partnership for well over a year – though that that amounted to 60 said as much about England’s struggles at the top of the order as Cook and Jennings’ success today.
Having worked hard to reach 23 however, Jennings was furious with his dismissal, tucking his 75th ball, from Ravindra Jadeja, into the waiting hands of leg slip, almost as if he didn’t see the fielder there. By Tea England had still only lost just the one wicket, but Cook and Moeen Ali, starting a Test match at No. 3 for the first time in his career, didn’t have it all their own way.
Both were given lives in the slips – Cook dropped by KL Rahul off Ishant Sharma and Ali by Virat Kohli three balls later, off Ishant Sharma, and they had to negotiate an immaculate spell from Mohammed Shami, who somehow ended the day wicketless despite beating the bat throughout. India did manage to keep the scoring rate down, with Cook and Ali scoring at well under two runs per over throughout their partnership of 73, which took over 40 overs.
Cook was the more fluent of the pair, even though he scored slowly, as if his decision to retire had lifted a weight off his shoulders. As he marched well past fifty, hope grew that he might make a fairy-tale hundred in his final Test. Alas, on 71, an inside-edge from Bumrah burst onto the stumps, and he walked off to a standing ovation.
It seemed he’d at least set the platform. But eight balls later England were in trouble, as Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow both fell for ducks. England’s captain was given LBW after an appeal which took an age, trapped in front by a Bumrah inswinger, and the latter edged Sharma behind as the ball just left him.
Ben Stokes and Ali attempted to repair the damage, but again the runs didn’t flow. Stokes has been becalmed all series, and this time it was the returning Jadeja who put him out of his misery, deceiving him in the flight and rapping him on the pads with a yorker-length delivery.
His dismissal precipitated another slide. Ali, having reached a battling half-century from 167 balls, by far his slowest in an England shirt, finally edged one having played and missed on countless occasions, and Rishabh Pant took the catch. Two balls later Sam Curran, who has leady many lower-order fightbacks in this series, also nicked off as he attempted to leave.
Jos Buttler and Adil Rashid survived to the close unscathed, but only just. Buttler in particular was lucky, twice being reprieved having been sent up to the third umpire, with the on-field umpire suggesting he was out. On the first occasion he was given out caught behind, having seemingly inside-edged onto his thigh pad, but snicko suggested it had simply hit both pads.
Then he was given out LBW, Shami apparently finally getting a deserved reward. He reviewed, seemingly in hope more than expectation, but once again snicko came to the rescue, this time suggesting the thinnest of inside-edges.
Still, India had by far the best of the day, thanks to the relentlessness of their seam attack. All conceded less than two an over, extracting what little movement was on offer – which increased throughout the day as reverse swing came into the equation – and bowling with hostility and consistency of line and length. Perhaps what most summed up their performance was that England ended the day 198/7, failing to pass 200 despite 90 overs being bowled.