IND vs ENG: Shubman Gill faces injury setback, sent for precautionary scan

2nd Test Day 3 Report: Masterful R Ashwin owns Chepauk to put England on brink

The momen England were bolwed out at 134 in their first innings, it was always going to be a tough ask for them to save the second Test of the series on a picth that has been deemed too much in favour of bowlers, precisely spinners. England were behind in the game by more than 250 runs at the start of the hird day and their hopes were reliant on a collapse by the Indian batting order. The pitch was playing tricks and England were able to have a dream start, prizing out Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant fairly quickly. Although England were behind in the game, failure of Indian batsmen and a collapse would have fuelled the deabte around the quality of the pitch which was rated as a ‘beach’ by former England captain Michael Vughan. When India started to collapse in the first session, there was expectations that the match will be finished inside three days, but Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin took upon themselves to show that the pitch was not unplayable, and that with better application and decisive footwork, runs were there for the taking. The duo started defending going to the pitch of the ball and attempted to score off the backfoot when English spinners started to lose their discipline once again. Kohli looked in total command, and the put on half century that many rated as good as some of his best innings in Test cricket. They put on a 96 run partnership before Kohli was beaten for the first time on backfoot by Moeen Ali and another impressive innings from the Indian skipper was cut short before he could hit a mcuh-awaited hundred. On the other hand, Ashwin was continuing on his merry way and defied all England bowlers in a picth and nararrative defying innings that lasted 148 deliveries. He had alerted a warning to the English camp a aday before and there he was making all that warning come true at the expense of Root and his teammates. Kohli batted well for his 62 and while the English spin twins Moeen Ali and Jack Leach finsihed with four wickets each, but the day belonged to Ashwin who put on another masterclass on the second consecutive day in this Test. On the second day, it was his bowling that had thrown England out of the game, while his batting floored a dn deflated the England team on the third day. After teaching his English ocunterparts how to bowl on this pitch in the first innings on the second day, the batsmen inside Ashwin rose to the occassion on the next day to teach them another lesson, and this time, a rancourous one with the bat in his hand. Root threw everything he had at his dispoal from Olly Stone’s pace to Stuart Broad’s leg cutters, but Ashwin, the batsman was ina a idfrerent zone and the feeling that he carried his own pitch to the middle must have gone through the fruatarted minds of Englihsmen. Ashwin was batting with immense confidence on his defence, something that must have irked the English batsmen who could not muster him while bolw in his hand, but was proactive to chnage his appraoch after Ishant Sharma got out. Ashwin was in pursuit of a rare hundred that would have made the stage his own and the crowd at Chepauk were right behind the local hero who was at the top of his game. When Broad bolwed full in pursuit of taking out his stumps, he was delat with punch over his head, while Stone’s short deliveris were flat batted to all parts of the ground. Leach’s full balls were lofted over the top, while the long hops were pulled. He was merciless against anything loose, and Root must have gone through a phase where he would have loved to see his batsmen watching theoff spinner giving them a harsh lesson on how to bat. The last man with the bat, Siraj’s delight when Ashwin completed his century emphasized the place Ashwin holds in the dressing room and the sledge by Australian captain that the team does not love him must have been crushed to death at Chepauk. England finally managed to see his back after his century but the real challenge was remaining for the tourist on the third day. They were tasked with the target of 482 runs to go 2-0up in the series, but it looked like more a punishment and thundering from the Indian team which was clearly not happy at them getting outplayed at their own peril in the last game. The balls was turning from the stump line and after Kohli handed the task of rattling the batsmen towards the end of the day’s play to Axar as Ashwin was away after spending so much time on the field. Kohli also handed Ishant the opportunity to do wahtever he could do best with the new ball before Ashwin returned with a huge roar from the crowd at Chepauk. Axar was the man for India and his brisk pace and line of attack at the stumps made him a lethal weapon on this pitch. He has been brought in to do the task Ravindra Jadeja used to do when was fit and the left armer’s reliance on natural variation off the pitch paid dividends for the hosts as Dominic Sibley was caught hoping to hit the ball right infront of the wicket. Opener Rory Burns has not had the best of times with the bat and was on pair in the second innings. He was gifted a reprive when Rishabh Pant could not hang onto an edge from his bat off Ashwin, but he was proved too meak and incapable by Ashwin who kept coming at him. The drift that defeated Stokes in the first innings proved to be too good for him, but he was gukity of doing a cardinal sin when he tried to close the face of the bat to a ball turning sharply and the edge was caught by an ecstatic Virat Kohli in the gulley region. The day’s play could not have been any less action-packed as an acurate Axar Patel caught a nervous Joe Root right back in the crease. Umpire Nitin Menoo did not pay heed to vociferous appeal from the Indians, and the the hosts opted for the DRS. Turned out, Menon had adjudged it not out pressuming the appeal was for a cuaght behind, but the third umpire Anil Chaudhary clearly found on replays that Root had missed the ball and that it had hit him on the pad. On the ball tracker, the point of imapct was ruled ‘umpire’s call’ and hence the decisions which was given on the grounds of caught behind stayed on the grounds of an LBW appeal as well and the whole Indian players including Kohli and the support staff in the dressing room clearly looked upset with the call. The much-sought wicket of Root would have thrown match firmly into India’s on the third day itself but Kohli would back his troops to come up trumps against England on the fourth day. Even a draw seems highly unlikely, but Kohli and India would be all eager to see the back of Ben Stokes and Joe Root as quickly as possible on the fourth day.

Twitter commends R Ashwin's special hundred at Chepauk

India’s R Ashwin scored his fifth Test ton against England in Chennai on Monday during the second match of the four-match series. India had earlier taken a lead in the first innings after bowling out England for 134 in reply to the hosts’ 329 in Chennai. The home side began the proceedings well with Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma putting on 42 for the first wicket but Gill departed for 14 after getting trapped in front of the stumps by Jack leach. India then lost few wickets in the first session of the third day before skipper Virat Kohli and Ashwin put 96 for the seventh wicket.

Cheteshwar Pujara keeps finding unfortunate ways to get out against England

There is no end of bad luck insight of India’s number three Chetehswar Pujara as he found yet another unfortunate way to get out on the third day of the second Test against Chennai. This is his second dismissals in bizarre fashion in this series after the first innings of the first Test. In the morning session of the third day, Pujara was playing in the usual style of stepping down to the pitch of the ball to negate spin, but for once Moeen Ali’s delivery jumped right to the short leg fielder Ollie Pope who was alert to find Pujara was outside of the batting crease. Pujara recovered quickly to turn around in order to get back into the crease, but his bat got jammed in the pitch just on the line and his second attempt of making it into the crease by his feet was not quick enough and Ben Foakes whipped off the bails to send him back to the pavilion. Pujara looked distraught after the dismissal. He was dismissed in a similar bizarre manner in the first Test when his ferocious pull shot against off-spinner Dominic Bess found Ollie Pope’s shoulder and the ricochet was pouched safely by Rory Burns stationed at the short midwicket position. Pujara’s wicket brought a collapse of the Indian batting order in the first session of the third day as the trio of Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant and Ajinkya Rahane quickly joined him in the dressing room. Virat Kohli held one end together while Ravichandran Ashwin played some remarkable shots to take India’s lead past 350-run mark at the Lunch interval on the third day.

FIR lodged against Yuvraj Singh

Former India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh has found himself in some trouble after his name was included in an FIR. The FIR has been lodged on basis of a complaint by a lawyer against his alleged casteist remarks against Dalits. According to a report in The Indian Express, a Hansi-based lawyer named Rajat Kalsan had filed a complaint at Hansi city police station in Hisar district in June last year. The FIR has been lodged under sections 153, 153 A, 295, 505 of the IPC and SC/ST act on Sunday. “This comment has hurt the sentiments of Dalits as millions of people have watched this video on social media,” Kalsan said. The controversy erupted after Yuvraj in an Instagram LIVE session with Rohit Sharma called Yuzvendra Chahal a ‘bhangi’. The former left-arm cricketer later faced the heat on social media for his remarks. Yuvraj had later clarified that his remarks were unintentional in a statement. “This is to clarify that I have never believed in any kind of disparity, be it on the basis of caste, colour, creed or gender. I have given and continue to spend my life for the welfare of people. I believe in the dignity of life and respect each individual without exception,” read the statement. “I understand that while I was having a conversation with my friends, I was misunderstood, which was unwarranted. However, as a responsible India I want to say that if I have unintentionally hurt anybody’s sentiments or feelings, I would like to express regret for the same. My love for India and all its people is eternal,” the statement added.