Ishant glows in harsh Chennai sun
MUMBAI: Through his brilliant double hundred, there was one Indian bowler Joe Root didn’t master, in the first Test at Chennai. Whether at the start of his innings or when past 100, every time Ishant Sharma came on to bowl, the England skipper looked tentative.
Middling everything from the rest of the bowlers, against Sharma there were inside and outside edges that fell short of the slips, and balls that thudded into Root’s pads. The slowness of the MA Chidambaram Stadium wicket meant the batsman got that little extra time to adjust and keep the crafty Indian pacer at bay, but there was no taking a chance against Sharma. Root wisely played out the pacer.
On another tough and long day for the India bowlers, Sharma’s display stood out. He was the most economical, conceding 1.93 runs per over (27-752-2). With a dramatic double blow in his 24th over, Sharma moved to within one scalp of completing 300 wickets, in his 98th Test.
Once Root departed, there were late rewards for Sharma. Even with the soft, old ball, without the use of saliva to shine for reverse swing, Sharma made the ball talk in his final spell after Virat Kohli brought him on late on Day 2. In the 170th over of the innings, the dangerous Jos Buttler was cleaned up shouldering arms with an incoming ball. Off the next delivery, Sharma hit a superb length just outside off and got it to nip back to send Jofra Archer’s off-stump cartwheeling. Buttler was set on 30 and Archer is a dangerous hitter. The wickets helped peg back England’s plans of an assault in the final session in their bid to push the total past 600.
“They were crucial wickets (Buttler and Archer), it lifts the team. If we wouldn’t have got those two we would have been quite behind in the game. Now, two tailenders are the crease,” said left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem about Sharma’s double blow. On Day 1, Root first faced Sharma during his second spell. In an excellent seventh over to Root, there was an appeal for leg before; in his next over, Root’s edge fell short of slip fielder, Rohit Sharma. The third ball after tea, the pacer again induced a healthy edge but it dropped short off ’keeper Rishabh Pant. After Day 1, the lanky pacer’s figures were a miserly 15-3-27-0. The keen tussle between the stalwarts continued on the second morning too. Batting well past his hundred and having played out the opening spell from Jasprit Bumrah and R Ashwin, Root was still not middling it when Sharma came on.