India in pole position as England end Day 3 on 67/1, needing another 332 runs to win the 2nd Test

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WICKET! Bharat c Stokes b Rehan 6 - India 228-7

A real gift for England in the opening over of the evening session, with Rehan picking up Bharat to nothing more than a short, long-hop, which the Indian batter swats straight to Stokes at mid-on.
 
I think we could pick DK from the comm box and he'd still do a better job than this Bharath. What an insult to the Indian Test cap this guy is!!!
 
I've said this before but UP easily has 3 better keeper batsmen than KS Bharat. What a horrible selection he is
 
BUmrah has now come to the field to have a short look at the pitch.
 
WICKET! Kuldeep c Duckett b Hartley 0 - India 229-8

And another one! Hartley has some wickets again.
 
Looks like England are going to do the reverse of Chennai 2008.

This wicket is still great to bat on.
 
No complaints or worries from me. England are putting in a huge effort and would normally be well in this game. but they are basically getting beaten here by Jaiswal and Bumrah, just two outstanding individual performances. The England players and brand of cricket on the whole look like they will be competitive on this tour. I would have snapped your hand off for a close 1-1 scoreline going into the mid series break, it’s much better than other touring sides in India have been doing.
 
No complaints or worries from me. England are putting in a huge effort and would normally be well in this game. but they are basically getting beaten here by Jaiswal and Bumrah, just two outstanding individual performances. The England players and brand of cricket on the whole look like they will be competitive on this tour. I would have snapped your hand off for a close 1-1 scoreline going into the mid series break, it’s much better than other touring sides in India have been doing.
India will have problems if England win more tosses. Their batting looks weak
 
Ashwin can easily take twos.

dropped catch, Ashwin lucky, and now takes a single...lol
 
No complaints or worries from me. England are putting in a huge effort and would normally be well in this game. but they are basically getting beaten here by Jaiswal and Bumrah, just two outstanding individual performances. The England players and brand of cricket on the whole look like they will be competitive on this tour. I would have snapped your hand off for a close 1-1 scoreline going into the mid series break, it’s much better than other touring sides in India have been doing.
They are doing well. Compared to many other teams who come to India just to get buried.

Props to them for sticking to their aggressive brand. They will come at this score guns blazing.
 
Yup. Ashwin is just playing for time. and inexplicably gives Bumrah 3 deliveries of Hartley to negotiate
 
WICKET! Bumrah c Bairstow b Hartley 0 - India 255-9

Bumrah's long vigil, lasting 44 minutes and 25 balls, finally comes to an end, with Hartley drawing the edge and Bairstow taking a sharp, low catch at second slip.
 
Unnecessary wasted time by Ashwin and Bumrah partnership. Could've tried few big shots here and there.
 
Foakes is an outstanding wicket keeper. The ball is turning and bouncing quite a bit, unlikely that england will chase this.
 
England have this in the bag unless Bumrah goes crazy again.
 
India is currently bowled out for 255, and England needs 399 to secure a victory. The target poses a significant challenge for England, especially with Bumrah leading the charge.
 
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Anyone know why Mukesh Kumar was picked ? Does he have outstanding domestic record ?
 
Mukesh has the potential to singlehandedly bowl England to victory
 
That deathly silence when the opposition hits a boundary in India !
 
Poor of Rohit not to have leg slip or short leg.
 
Now he puts a leg slip but the horse has been bolted already. Crawley would have been neatly caught off Kuldeep had he put a fielder there earlier
 
Not too bad a day for England really. Bowled out India again and got a decent score of their own on the board. Still a long way behind in the game but have given themselves a slight chance.
 
Any takers for an England win?

IND 396 & 255
ENG 253 & 67/1 (14) CRR: 4.79
Day 3: Stumps - England need 332 runs
 
2nd Test, Day 3: England 253 and 67/1 (Z Crawley 29*, R Ahmed 9*) at stumps, need 332 runs to beat India (396 and 255)
 
2nd Test, Day 3: England 253 and 67/1 (Z Crawley 29*, R Ahmed 9*) at stumps, need 332 runs to beat India (396 and 255)

England lost Ben Duckett late on day three after being set an enormous 399 to beat India in the second Test in Visakhapatnam.

Duckett made 28 in a stand of 50 with Zak Crawley before offering a bat-pad catch off Ravichandran Ashwin.

Crawley remains on 29, alongside the promoted Rehan Ahmed on nine, with England 67-1 and in need of 332 more runs for another astonishing victory.

India were put into a position from which they are favourites to level the series by a classy century from Shubman Gill.

Amid some England excellence with the ball in the morning session, Gill could have been dismissed three times before he reached 20, but survived to make 104 and help India to 255 in their second innings.

Despite giving up a first-innings deficit of 143, England clung on with tenacity. James Anderson was magnificent in the first half hour and even though Gill shared stands of 89 with Axar Patel and 81 with Shreyas Iyer, the tourists chipped away.

Tom Hartley claimed four wickets, Ahmed three. Ben Foakes was excellent behind the stumps and Ben Stokes took a wonderful catch to remove Iyer. India lost their last six wickets for 44 runs.

For as hard as England battled, they still need to break records to win. A successful chase would be their highest in Test cricket, the highest by anyone against India and the highest in this country.

No visiting team has ever made 300 in the fourth innings of a Test in India, regardless of the result.

England also have a concern over Joe Root, who took a blow to the finger at slip and was off the field from the drinks break in the morning session.

England have already made history under captain Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum. It was against India at Edgbaston in 2022 that they set the record for England's highest chase and only last week overturned a 190-run first-innings deficit to win the first Test in Hyderabad.

That they still have the feintest sniff here is down to the intensity they showed in Sunday's first session and the perseverance they demonstrated across the rest of the day.

Shubman could have batted England out of the game, especially with Anderson barely used after lunch and Root's off-spin unavailable. Instead, Stokes marshalled a trio of young spinners with only three previous caps between them and toyed with the field to induce Indian errors.

Ultimately it has probably come too late, albeit on a pitch still good for batting, bar occasional uneven bounce. It is likely that England will come to rue the 6-68 they lost in their first innings on Saturday.

There was at least precedent for what Stokes' men achieved in Hyderabad, whereas victory here would mean doing something no England team has done. In fact, England have only twice chased more than 100 to win in India, neither of which were in the past 40 years.

Crawley and Duckett laid a platform and India will be wary of what England are capable of, but this feels like a stretch, even for the Bazballers.

Gill has been an enigma to the India Test team. The 24-year-old has the second-highest one-day international average of all time, but has struggled to build on a promising start to his Test career. His highest score in his 12 previous innings was 36.

On Sunday Gill repaid the faith shown in him, albeit after coming through a torrid start to his innings. He overturned being given lbw to Hartley on four, survived a marginal lbw review off Anderson on the same score and on 17 edged Hartley between keeper and slip.

With determination, Gill grew in stature and scored all around the wicket. He played powerful sweeps, delicate cuts and lofted two sixes down the ground. Gill was particularly harsh on Ahmed en route to his third Test century.

The stands with Shreyas, who made 29, and Axar, who hit 45, pushed the game away from England, only for Gill to make the mistake that allowed the fightback. As Stokes left a gap on the off side, Shubman played a reverse-sweep for the first time in his innings and gloved Shoaib Bashir to Foakes.

India ground to a halt and lost 4-18 in 10 overs, leaving Ashwin to inch on in the company of Jasprit Bumrah, who chewed up 26 deliveries for his duck.

Bumrah's vigil ended when he pushed Hartley to gully and in the next over Ashwin was last man out for 29, edging Ahmed behind.

With India 28-0 at the beginning of the day, already 171 ahead, England needed everything to go their way. As Anderson swung the ball in the hazy morning humidity, it felt like it might.

Anderson needed only four deliveries to bend at outswinger past the defence of Rohit Sharma and into off stump. In Anderson's next over, Yashasvi Jaiswal followed a wide one and edged to first slip. It made Anderson the first 41-year-old pace bowler to take five wickets in a Test since 1923.

India were rocked, but somehow Gill and Iyer built their stand. Just as India were getting on top, Stokes produced his moment of magic. Iyer miscued Hartley, Stokes turned from mid-off and sprinted towards the boundary, holding a breath-taking diving catch as the ball dropped over his shoulder.

Anderson bowled only three overs after lunch, so Hartley, Ahmed and Bashir carried the attack. Like the first Test, Hartley was a much better bowler in the second innings, Bashir got the crucial wicket of Gill and Ahmed's 41.3 overs in the match are the most of his first-class career. Foakes took two super catches up to the stumps.

As England prepared to face 14 overs under the floodlights, Ahmed hit throw-downs on the outfield but it looked as though he would not be required, only for Ashwin to strike with 19 balls of the day remaining.

And Ahmed, only 19 and in his third Test, had the confidence to take two boundaries off Axar in the final over of the day.

BBC Sport

 
Anderson: We'd have looked to chase 600!
England seamer James Anderson, after his 2-29:


"We got sat down by the coach [Brendon McCullum] last night and he said, 'if India get 600 ahead, we're going to try and chase it down'. And that's exactly what we're going to try and do.

"We stuck to our task really well today. They put on a partnership at one point but the way the spinners kept going, kept toiling, was brilliant.

"Now we're in a great position and we're going to give it a good crack tomorrow."
 
If England were prepared to chase 600, and now they only have to chase 399, then I believe England are favorites to win.
 
Tomorrow is going to be a great day of test cricket.

India firm favourites on paper..most likely England will not cross 250...
But you wouldn't turn down an outside punt on England to do it.

If there is any side that could do it its this England side.
 
I am scared of Bazball taking over tomorrow. They've already done it to us once.

Screenshot 2024-02-04 193013.jpg
 
Interesting how Crawley has been England's main batsman this test match. If Eng have any sort of chance to chase this down, he needs a massive score.

Crawley is the only batsman who can handle bumrah, looking good against the spinners as well.
 
Anderson: We'd have looked to chase 600!
England seamer James Anderson, after his 2-29:


"We got sat down by the coach [Brendon McCullum] last night and he said, 'if India get 600 ahead, we're going to try and chase it down'. And that's exactly what we're going to try and do.

"We stuck to our task really well today. They put on a partnership at one point but the way the spinners kept going, kept toiling, was brilliant.

"Now we're in a great position and we're going to give it a good crack tomorrow."

Only time bazaball was tested in a chase outside England was the game when they failed to chase 258 v NZ from a position of 201-5.
 
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Ashwin and Bumrah got to summon whatever reserves of guiles they have. It's that difficult for us tomorrow.
 
I am scared of Bazball taking over tomorrow. They've already done it to us once.
Good example but that was a lot different pitch than this one.
 
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Anderson: We'd have looked to chase 600!
England seamer James Anderson, after his 2-29:


"We got sat down by the coach [Brendon McCullum] last night and he said, 'if India get 600 ahead, we're going to try and chase it down'. And that's exactly what we're going to try and do.

"We stuck to our task really well today. They put on a partnership at one point but the way the spinners kept going, kept toiling, was brilliant.

"Now we're in a great position and we're going to give it a good crack tomorrow."
Will be some legendary quotes if they actually manage to chase down such a big target.
 
There is 90% chances of India's win but in cricket , you never know . It will be fun to watch the pre-lunch game at least , which I will be watching 11 pm - 1 AM , my local time in USA. Particularly after Anderson's statement after team meeting " England has 180 overs to play , but if we won , it will be in 60-70 overs ". I am hoping night watchman Rehan will create some head ache for Indians .
 
Exciting day of Cricket awaits.
Excellent stuff from Baz-Stokes. Finally a series in India that is worth following. Good from BCCI to prepare good pitches.
 
1 big partnership here and the game is on.

England should play its bazball style cricket because the more deliveries they try to face the higher the chances of losing their wickets. It's better to go on the attack.
 
I predict england will be all out for 187. However, I’d love to hear about a record chase that’d be worth watching.
 
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