RED ALERT Ginger duo Stokes and Bairstow dig in and admit: Still loads of runs out there
SUNDAY MIRROR
ENGLAND’S fiery redheads brought some much-needed calm to their second Test battle, but it wasn’t enough to get them off life-support.
And by the time India skipper Virat Kohli walked off the field on day three with yet another 50 to his name, England were 298 adrift and backed into a corner with little more than survival on the agenda.
Whether they can scrap and survive for 140 overs second time around is another matter. But, in Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow, England have witnessed a blueprint for how to bat on this Vizag pitch against the best spinner in the world. The copper-topped duo added 110 together for the sixth wicket in England’s 255 all out, making them the side’s most successful partnership this year. In just seven innings they have put on 772 runs together with the highlight their epic in Cape Town when Stokes blasted 258 and Bairstow 150 for the highest sixth-wicket stand in history.
Bai r s tow ( below) admitted after his 53: “It is difficult to put our success down to a specific thing.
“We complement each other being left and right handed which helpsp and we rotate the strike ike pretty well. With h the combination we have, we calm each other down too, which is probably hard to believe from two wo redheads out there.re
“The chat and the confidence we give each other seems to work nicely.
“It is just a combination of everything that we do that seems to work.
“Sometimes you just have to let him go like at Cape Town and sometimes it is just a case of having to rein each other in like here.”
There were none of those South African high jinks this time, but instead they applied great skill to show their team-mates what can be done.
“We needed to show a bit more fight and we’ll need to show fight for the rest of the game and the rest of the tour,” added the stumper.
“But when it comes for us to bat again – whether it is in the afternoon or the evening – we know there are runs out there and that will give us confidence.
“It will take a few s special knocks, but the way Virat has gone tonight shows it can be d done. You’ve just go got to grit your teeth and crack on. We’ve shown before we can bat for long periods of time on sub continent pitches and score runs on them.”
The prospect of bowling the final two days with the ball staying low is one that India – who closed on 98-3 last night – are relishing.
Off spinner Jayant Yadav said: “We are a consistent spin unit and there’s variable bounce out there. It will be very tough for England.”