India strike late to reduce England to 87/2 in 405-run chase

Broad is nursing a foot injury and will be assessed after the ongoing test but there was no let up in hostility from the lanky paceman who troubled the Indian batsmen with his probing cutters. I felt the pitch was a bit worn, with a some variable bounce.

Jayant trapped Stuart Broad and James Anderson lbw in successive balls, with Anderson becoming the first English batsman since 1906 to be dismissed for first ball ducks in both innings of a test match.

“England is a side we do not take for granted”, Kohli said.

Hameed launched the spinner down the ground later in the same over in a rare display of aggression and India’s frustration mounted when they used up both reviews in quick succession, with umpire’s call the verdict on both occasions after Cook was struck on the pad. “There will be some uneven bounce on the pitch and you have to grit your teeth and crack on”, Bairstow said. That’s quite exciting. You’ve a chance of doing something – I won’t say heroic, but doing something quite special.

Jadeja was by then bowling over the wicket to Cook and landing the ball in the rough that had built up. ‘We’ve just got to earn that right to do it.

Meanwhile, Cook’s team came in for criticism from Indian captain Virat Kohli for their defensive approach to the fourth innings, when England opted to play for a draw from the start. “Especially someone as dogged and strong as Cook”. Possibly day five won’t be easy to bat on.

Stokes has always been regarded as Cook’s go-to man in a crisis. The courage he shows. Umesh Yadav and Shami were given short spells.

“He played a tough innings”, Broad said.

“He further compared the innings to Mike Atherton’s knock of 280-ball 89 against a South Africa attack boasting Allan Donald while following on in the July 1998 drawn Test in Old Trafford”. Didn’t let the bounce change his movements. Bairstow’s fairytale run with the bat has already made him this year’s highest run-getter in Test cricket. You can see the scoring rates – it became harder. Today runs weren’t on his agenda. The 50 mark came up in the 19th over, while Kohli reached his 13th test half century off 63 balls.

He largely operated back-of-a-length and got the ball to seam around. “Not many batsmen are going to hit that, are they?”

“Tearing a tendon in your toe doesn’t sound particularly pleasant, so to bowl like he did was a huge credit to his resilience and his toughness”. England need 318 more runs with eight wickets in hand. So we will try to be positive and score, because at the end of the day it’s a run chase. But we put a lot of pressure on India. We would not take things for granted.

“Whenever we bat next, there are definitely runs to be had”.

An intriguing final day beckons. And that’s got to be out aim.

“We are happy with the way things went. We are still very much there in the series”.

The action shifts to Mohali for the the third Test starting Saturday while the fourth match commences on December 8. But Ganguly, an immensely successful captain himself, said he would not yet make a judgement call on the captain-coach duo. “I think I am one of them”. “He dismissed Pujara that way”.