Bess spins it, India’s top order wobbles
Off-spinner bags four, including Pant and Pujara after their fifties, as England leave India struggling
NEW DELHI: On the eve of the first Test against India in Chennai, Dom Bess declared his eagerness to get Virat Kohli. “I will go loony, be running off!” he told Talk Sport, a UK radio station. The 23-year-old from Devon, who took to off-spin because as an overweight kid he did not like running much, though didn’t go berserk when Kohli fell for his wide delivery, lunging forward to play for the turn and inside edging to Ollie Pope at short leg shortly after lunch on Day 3. If he had gone crazy after picking the most prized Indian wicket, Bess would have been excused.
By the end of the day, aided by outstanding fielding efforts, he had also accounted for Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara and Rishabh Pant. His four-wicket haul came after Jofra Archer used his high-arm action, extra pace and bounce to breathe fire on a pitch that seemed lifeless on the first two days, rattling the Indian openers. The pincer attack from two youngsters on their maiden Test in India left the hosts on the backfoot. At stumps, India reached 257/6, still trailing England by 321 runs.
England added 23 runs to their overnight score to reach 578 before their bowlers asserted themselves. Playing with two spinners, England needed their speedsters to provide early momentum. Archer and James Anderson provided enough of that.
Openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill, who looked in fine touch with his shot placements, fell to Archer. The tall pacer’s hit-the-deck style extracted extra bounce, and operating at around the 140kph mark, his leg-cutters kept them on the edge. It seemed he was bowling on a different deck to the one India’s pacers had operated on. Maintaining a top-of-offstump line, Archer first got Rohit Sharma, a tentative push against a rising delivery leading to an easy catch for wicketkeeper Jos Buttler. For his second wicket though, Archer should give credit to Anderson. Gill’s uppish on-drive to a delivery that was angled in was scooped up by the 38-year-old at mid-on.
It was an aspect that stood out through the day. The visitors converted the half chances to peg back their rivals, unlike India who dropped four catches with a stumping also missed in England’s marathon innings. The consistency with which Bess kept attacking on a pitch that is showing some wear and tear was complemented by the fielders. The departure of the openers brought the most experienced Indian batsmen, Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara together before lunch. They were expected to rescue the team, but the stand didn’t last. Bess’s delivery, with flight and dip, drew the batsmen forward. Kohli, who had not played since the Adelaide Test ended on Dec 19, looked edgy against Archer and saw one from Bess fall short of mid-wicket, before Pope held the inside edge.
That was followed by a stunning one-handed effort diving to his left by England captain Joe Root at short cover which sent Rahane back. He had stepped out to meet Bess’s full toss only for the ball to dip, and Root plucked it brilliantly. “The Kohli dismissal was special, I think more for the fact that what my process was. I was looking to get him out but it was not about bowling that magic ball. It was about switching in 10-15 balls in a good area and then something will happen. It’s that process of getting there. I kept him in a spot,” Bess said after play ended. “It’s certainly up there (in terms of top dismissals), the player that he is. I am 23 and want to keep going on. I don’t want to think on it too much.”