Moeen outspins India to drag England back
Recalled bowler takes four wickets in 16 balls Pujara hits unbeaten 132 to edge tourists in front
Globalisation has turned the cricket world upside down and inside out. India’s pace bowlers are out-bowling England’s while, in an equally flagrant disregard of tradition, England’s spinners are out-bowling India’s.
Or this at any rate is the picture going into the third day of the evermore riveting spectacle that is the fourth Specsavers Test. Moeen Ali, in his first Test appearance this season, took five swift wickets, so that India’s lead was no more than 27, reduced to 21 by the close; and England’s spinners have so far taken 12 wickets in this series to India’s 10.
But Moeen’s counterpart as India’s off-spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin, could be more penetrative on a pitch which reflects the summer’s drought and is wearing fast.
In the same upside-down fashion, a nuggety Yorkshire batsman played the innings of the second day, only it was not Joe Root or Jonny Bairstow. It was Yorkshire’s overseas player, Cheteshwar Pujara, who summoned up the grit and application to score an unbeaten 132, which gave India a lead, if nothing like so handsome as the one which their captain Virat Kohli must have fancied after dismissing England for only 246.
Pujara had a wretched early season for Yorkshire but it was time invaluably well spent as he struggled through April and May in the county championship. Along with Jasprit Bumrah, Pujara has become a major figure in India’s revival in this series, from 2-0 down to 2-1 at Trent Bridge, and now to having their noses in front here.
Trojan horses have been a constant feature of English cricket since 1968, when counties were allowed to register overseas players and ever since the pros and cons have been innumerable. Sir Garfield Sobers revived not only Nottinghamshire but the English domestic game, while the likes – save that they were incomparable – of Barry Richards and Mike Procter, Rohan Kanhai and Zaheer Abbas, raised the standard not only in England but, as professionals, back in their home countries where the sport was still amateur.
The main con or downside is that England’s national team lost its inherent advantage – at least when playing at home – through this admission of overseas players. Batsmen from all Test-playing countries have learned about English conditions by signing for counties, then after a few seasons of preparation have scored significant centuries for their country in England.
Pujara, through playing for Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire in past summers as well as Yorkshire, has tightened up his defence, as he might not have done if confined to his native India, along with limited opportunities on his country’s tours abroad. He has learnt how to play himself in, even if most of England’s Test players have forgotten: Pujara patiently left outside off stump, did not feel any compulsive need to get bat on ball, and absorbed three blows. After 28 balls, Pujara had made one scoring shot – a safe clip off his legs – and scored two.
Other Trojan Horses from India have been admitted within the city walls, such as Ishant Sharma, who did his red-ball groundwork with Sussex earlier this summer, and who has bowled well enough to take more wickets than any other Indian bowler in this series so far, 13. Sharma also hung around in a ninthwicket stand of 32 with Pujara, who dented England’s optimism by giving India the lead in adding 46 with Bumrah for the 10th wicket.
Ashwin played for Worcestershire at the end of last season and is booked to do the same again, so the Dukes ball was not unfamiliar when he took it at the start of England’s second innings. More horses have been neighing with Australian accents, ahead of the Ashes next summer, like Shaun Marsh and Usman Khawaja at Glamorgan and Matt Renshaw at Somerset.
Still, England remain in this game, in spite of reeling at 86 for six on the first afternoon, and for that they have to thank Sam Curran for his 78 and an all-round bowling effort.
Moeen took the glory by making his off-breaks grip and repeating his success against India here in 2014, but it was fine teamwork – and for once it was Stuart Broad who led the attack, rather than James Anderson. Broad took two wickets in his eight-over spell from the pavilion end to set the tone, and he passed the outside edge of Kohli’s bat with two consecutive balls in the afternoon to some applause.
While Anderson was relatively inaccurate, Curran did the invaluable service of tempting Kohli, after he had posted 6,000 Test runs, to reach for a ball angled across him.
To complete Kohli’s relatively cheap dismissal – though his series aggregate of 486 is way more than twice that of anybody else – Cook demonstrated how a low slip catch should be taken, by getting low and moving sideways until his eyes were behind the line of the ball, then catching it with both hands. Joe Root, in dropping Ajinkya Rahane, showed how it should not be done by flopping downwards on the ball with one hand.
Ben Stokes was fifth change, because his left knee is limiting his number of spells, in this case to one, but it was a good one – then Moeen abruptly took four wickets in only 16 balls either side of tea. Jos Buttler’s wicketkeeping was inferior to Jonny Bairstow’s normal standard but by deflecting the ball for a bye just before tea, Buttler enabled Moeen to bowl the last over before the interval at Rishabh Pant, who was bent on playing an unnaturally defensive game, and trapped him with an off-break. Hardik Pandya, driving loosely to short midwicket, was Moeen’s second wicket.
Ashwin donated his wicket to a fellow spinner and was immediately followed by Mohammed Shami, bowled off stump. But Sharma batted as sensibly as Ashwin usually does and nobody will sneeze at a lead of 27 in a low-scoring, nail-biting and decisive Test.