If the first day of the fourth test at the Aegean Bowl belonged to Sam Curran and Jasprit Bumrah, Chateshwar Pujara and Moeen Ali were the heroes on the second day for their respective teams. On the evening of the first day, India had to be ruefully satisfied after England had managed to scramble their way to 246 all out despite being 86 for the loss of six wickets.
A brave rearguard innings by Curran with some support from Moeen Ali gave the English score a semblance of respectability. Pujara was the mainstay of the Indian batting effort. Other than the 94 run partnership with Virat Kohli, who scored a rather streaky 46, Pujara was just a spectator to brief visits of Rahane, Pant, Pandya, Aswhin and Pandya to the wicket. India was 195 for 8 and still trailing England by 51 runs.
It took Ishant Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah to stitch partnerships of 32 and 47 runs for the last two wickets and enable Pujara to take India’s score to 273, a lead of just 27 runs. Chatesh Pujara played a classic inning of 132 not out. He patiently blocked the good deliveries while scoring fluently of the good balls.
Seventy per cent of the 257 deliveries That Pujara faced were dot balls. Once the ball was sufficiently worn out Pujara displayed a wide array of shots. Struck twice in his innings, once on the helmet which left an angry swelling on his forehead, he played some blistering square cuts, drives, flicks and controlled pulls to remain unbeaten on 132. For Pujara, the innings came at an opportune time.
Moeen Ali made a dream comeback to the English side scalping. In England’s first inning he had scored a valuable 40 runs in a partnership of 81 runs with Sam Curran to help England reach a respectable 246 all out. When India batted, Ali ran amok by claiming five wickets for just 63 runs. Starting with the dismissal of Rishab Pant, the Indian wicketkeeper, he claimed five wickets in a row. In India’s 2014 tour of England, it was Moeen Ali who had dismissed 6 Indian batsmen for 67 runs at the same venue.
To have a semblance of a chance to keep the series alive, the Indian bowlers will have to bowl out of their skins. Too many of the top order English batsmen have failed to play a significant inning for too long a time. If not too careful India might land up on the wrong end of the law of averages. England, on the other hand, will want their openers and Joe root to come good. With plenty of time on their hand, they can set India a stiff target with the spinners showing already showing that they can ply their wares to some effect.
Cricket aficionados will, despite their loyalties and affiliations will hope that India can tie the series. A result like that will enhance the standing of test cricket in a sport that is largely dominated by the abridged versions of the game.
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