Swing and roundabouts: Black Caps left frustrated
Inswinger here, outswinger there. The English Dukes ball hooped around corners for Kyle Jamieson to the powerhouse Indian batting lineup, even if one came flying back past him via a searing Shubman Gill on-drive.
So when Jamieson saw Gill shuffling down the pitch he dug one in, from a steep 2m-plus trajectory. It cracked the young opener a fearful blow on the helmet grille, his head snapping back, but he continued on.
At the other end Rohit Sharma (34) looked in super touch, savaging anything wide to the rope, but a Jamieson outswinger got him prodding forward and Tim Southee held a sharp catch at third slip for the vital momentum-shifter yesterday.
A loose start with the ball, and India’s positive approach, saw the openers put on 62 in tough conditions. The Black Caps fought back to snare 3-26, then India counterpunched and weathered some more swinging red missiles, to end 146-3 after being sent in to bat in the World Test Championship final at soggy Southampton.
With skipper Virat Kohli reining in his expansive game and leaving well, he was 44 not out at stumps on the first day of action, it was India’s day, too.
Said Black Caps allrounder Jimmy Neesham, watching from his Essex base: ‘‘Sometimes you can get a little bit too excited, you win the toss and bowl in those sorts of conditions, especially with that dark Dukes ball you think you can get things moving around.
‘‘Potentially there was a little bit too much movement at times, beating the bat a lot.
‘‘Also you have to give credit where it’s due to the Indian top order, they’ve got a superstar toporder and they all know their roles extremely well and performed them today,’’ Neesham said.
It was the intensely gripping ebb and flow of test cricket between the world’s top-two ranked sides, interrupted by one of cricket’s most infuriating rules.
Three times umpires Michael
Gough and Richard Illingworth delayed play for bad light, even with the Ageas Bowl lights illuminating the ground that was lashed by rain 24 hours earlier. Just 64.4 overs were bowled on day two, meaning 33.2 were left, the prospect of a sixth day increasing.
Umpires are bound by the ICC playing conditions which state they can call a halt if conditions are ‘‘dangerous or unreasonable’’.
Said Jamieson: ‘‘Oh, yeah, certainly pretty frustrating, when you bowl three or four balls and you go off and then come back on for another couple and then you go off again, it’s not how you’d like it ideally.
‘‘Again, it’s just the cards we’ve been dealt, and it’s the same with rain. We’ve all played in games throughout our careers where we’ve been off for rain or off for bad light.
‘‘Obviously the spectacle is
‘‘The spectacle is such a special one for everyone involved, and you don’t want that to be curtailed by bad light or rain.’’
Kyle Jamieson
such a special one for everyone involved, and you don’t want that to be curtailed by bad light or rain, but it’s part and parcel of what we sign up for, and hopefully we get some good amount of play in tomorrow.’’
Jamieson bowled nine maidens in his figures of 1-14 off 14 overs, with Sharma his 40th wicket in his eighth test. Cheteshwar Pujara was his first, on debut at Wellington in February 2020, and Kohli his second as Jamieson’s bowling average continues to hover around a mind-boggling 15.
Neil Wagner struck with his third ball, nicking off Gill (28), and Trent Boult trapped Pujara (8) lbw after a painstaking 85-minute stay. Tim Southee was excellent late in the day with the old ball still swinging, after a poor start. Five or six wickets would have been the Black Caps’ aim on winning the toss with a stacked pace lineup, so they were
left with work to do.
Jamieson was satisfied with the way he reined in Gill and Sharma. ‘‘My take on it was that if they were walking, they weren’t comfortable with where I was bowling when they were on the crease, so I tried to take that as a bit of a positive that we were winning the battle.
‘‘If they felt like they had to move around to try to throw us off, if we could just hang in that area that would bring dividends.’’