India make steady progress after England post 400

That may be a revelation to many, but Jennings junior’s take on how to help England fight back against India borrows a little more obviously from the teachings of a hard taskmaster. For India, the task will be cut out to try and restrict England under 400. England’s Ian Botham (twice), South Africa’s Shaun Pollock (twice), Mitchell Johnson (Australia), Daniel Vettori (New Zealand), Andrew Flintoff (England) are the other five.

MUMBAI England batsman Jos Buttler has called on the team’s bowlers to be more disciplined in their line and length to put pressure on India’s batting in the fourth test at the Wankhede Stadium.

The 26-year-old had played just one first-class match in between being dropped for the final Test of England’s series against Pakistan in the UAE last November and his return for the Third Test against India in Mohali last month.

Hameed, who is now in Mumbai as a spectator having had an operation on a badly broken finger in the United Kingdom, said he was “devastated” to learn the severity of the injury and tried to plead with the coaches to let him play on with the use of painkillers.

Both Cook and coach Trevor Bayliss have to make best use of the resources and quickly buckle up before the series gets out of hands.

Dancing down the wicket he was beaten by the spin and was stumped by wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel. Having given his wicket away unnecessarily earlier in the series, his was a cautious aggression.

India’s top-order batting has been shored up by the sublime form exhibited by No 3 Cheteshwar Pujara and captain Virat Kohli and any subsequent wobble has been arrested by the lower order batsmen led by Ravichandran Ashwin.

Then came the curio that is Moeen Ali, with whom Jennings shared a 94-run partnership. This is one of the pitches where the ball can go to the slip. “But I think the way he plays is a lesson on how to play on these wickets”.

True to his nature, Moeen couldn’t deny himself the big shot for long.

“We have traditional bowlers who can vary pace brilliantly, and that’s what Ashwin, Jaddu and even Jayant have been doing”.

“It does not matter what form cricket you are playing – if you are in form you are in form”. Clearly doesn’t count for much now. But the selectors resisted that going instead for the left-handed Jennings with his right-minded attitude. Kapil did it twice in 1979 (619 runs, 74 wickets) and 1983 (579 runs, 75 wickets).

England were reduced to 334/8 and were staring of being bowled out under 350.