Root’s double century puts England in control
Visiting team skipper scores 218 to become the first player to hit a double century in his 100th Test as England storm past 550 in the opening Test against India on Saturday
CHENNAI: England captain Joe Root became the first batsman to smash a double-hundred in his 100th test, crafting a massive 218 runs to put his team in charge of the opening match against India in Chennai on Saturday.
The 30-year-old registered his second double-century in three matches as England amassed 555-8 on a flat wicket at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
At the end of Day Two, Dom Bess was batting on 28 with Jack Leach on six at the other end. Root was seen battling cramps in the final overs on Friday but returned to hound India’s bowlers when England resumed on 263-3.
The right-hander looked typically solid against an Indian attack which could manage only a couple of half-hearted lbw appeals against him in the first two sessions. Root was more than happy to let Ben Stokes dominate their 124-run collaboration for the fourth wicket when boundaries flowed. The home side did not look sharp on the field either. Ravichandran Ashwin dropped a return catch from Stokes, then on 31, and in the next over, the all-rounder’s slog-sweep brushed a diving Cheteshwar Pujara’s fingers at midwicket.
CHENNAI: Skipper Joe Root continued to torment the Indian spinners with a majestic double century that placed England in a commanding position and scuttled home team’s chances of enforcing a favourable result in the first Test here on Saturday.
England ended the day two at an intimidating 555 for eight, built around Root’s 218 that was result of a near nine-hour effort in which he faced 377 balls. Root became the first cricketer to score a double hundred in his 100th Test but more importantly it was an innings that will be archived for future generations as a ready reference on how to play spin on Indian pitches.
The pace of his innings on the second day was a bit in contrast to how he played on the first day when he was the enforcer and Dom Sibley the grafter.
On the second morning, it was Ben Stokes who entered the stage and made it his own with big hitting. He smashed 82 off 118 balls with 10 fours and three sixes and let Root rotate the strike in their 124-run stand.
Worse, England didn’t declare after being well past 500 which was like driving home a point and piling on the misery on an Indian team which has now been shaken up on a track where nothing happened for two days.
While Root will be lauded for sure for his second double hundred in last three Test matches, it was Stokes, whose counter-attack deflated the home team.
He started by coming down and lofting Ravichandran Ashwin over long for a six and then used the giant stride to slog sweep the senior off-spinner for a boundary.
In fact, Ashwin (2/132), who was brilliant over two days, was only a bit rattled when Stokes gave him the charge. Although Root hit Ashwin for two sixes -the second one bringing up his fifth career double hundred for the England captain -- it was Stokes who gave him and the other spinners a big charge.
Also the only one who played Ishant Sharma with some degree of confidence was Stokes. While Root defended well against the veteran pacer, it was Stokes, whose on-drive and square drive off successive deliveries from the pacer did change his skipper Virat Kohli’s facial complexion, which remained grumpy for the most part of the day.
Ishant (2/52) bowled as best as he had in any unfavourable conditions, something that the scoreboard wouldn’t perhaps tell.
The veteran of 98 Tests finally got a couple of wickets at the fag end of the day but his performance with old ball on one of the flattest tracks will be remembered for a long time.
The pace never dropped even when he was well past bowling his 20th over as the tattered old ball would consistently tail in.
But Ishant, Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah (2/81)’s good work was undone once again by rookie Washington Sundar.
And Shahbaz Nadeem (2/167) for all his experience at the domestic level for a decade and half, probably understood that he probably is a bit less-skilled when facing a team full of quality players of spin.
His wickets column would read that he had got Stokes and Root but it was well after they had accomplished what they had set out to do. Root and Stokes showed how to stay low and try and take the ball below the eyeline. Since the duo couldn’t build a lot of pressure from one end, the onus was always on either Ashwin or Ishant or Bumrah to strike and keep the pressure.
Root’s strike-rate against pacers was in mid-30s and against spinners, it was in the high 70s, underlining his dominance against Washington and Nadeem.
They gave away easy singles and doubles to Root, who scored 130 runs in singles, doubles and that odd triple apart from hitting 19 boundaries and two sixes.
And not to forget the runs that he had to run for his various batting partners during the course of the England innings.
Celebrating his 100th Test in style, Root racked up the highest individual score in the milestone
Test, passing Inzamam ul Haq’s 184 for Pakistan in 2005.
Root reached the milestone off 341 deliveries shortly before tea. He became the first visiting batsman to score a double hundred in Tests in India since New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum in 2010. McCullum was also the last batsman to reach that mark against India, seven years ago in Wellington.
Overall, Root is the third English batsman to score a double hundred at Chennai after Mike Gatting and Graeme Fowler. Overall, he is the fifth visiting batsman to achieve the feat at this ground, with Australians Dean Jones and Matthew Hayden the other two.
“It’s a bit frightening when you’re at the other end and he makes it look so easy,” teammate Ben Stokes said after the day’s play.
“At the moment he’s in incredible form, and to play as well as he’s done in conditions that are alien to English batsmen is phenomenal.”
Root and Stokes added 124 runs for the fourth wicket and dominated the morning session.
Stokes scored his 23rd halfcentury and attacked the spinners. He was out caught in the deep post lunch in a bid to further up the ante against Shahbaz Nadeem (2-167).
“Today, initially, it was a typical subcontinent wicket,” Stokes said, “but Nadeem got a couple to kick out of the rough, and I said to myself, I’d rather get caught deep square taking the attack to him rather than get caught short leg being defensive.
“There’s obviously more in the wicket for the spinners than the seamers, and you’ve got to give a lot of credit to Ishant (Sharma) and (Jasprit) Bumrah for the way they run in. We’ll need to do that as well,” Stokes said.
Brief scores: England 1st inns 555/8 in 180 overs (R Burns 33, D Sibley 87, J Root 218, B Stokes 82, O Pope 34; I Sharma 2/52, J Bumrah 2/81, R Ashwin 2/132, S Nadeem 2/167).