There were no real surprises in Mohali. India patiently polished off the England innings and they barely needed their chief tormentor, Ravi Ashwin, to contribute. Instead the other spinners of a 21st century triumvirate of Indian tweakers, who certainly bat rather better than their predecessors, calmly worked their way through the order – with a bit of help from Mohammed Shami and the second new ball and a bit of spell-binding resistance from Haseeb Hameed who finally emerged from the dressing room to deliver a little gem.
Despite the spine and sparkle of Hameed’s unbeaten 59 this was quite a drubbing for England. They were bowled out for 236 leaving India just 103 runs for victory and they soon knocked them off with eight wickets to spare.
Throughout the morning Ravindra Jadeja and Jayant Yadav simply bided their time maintaining the pressure all the while and sooner or later the batsmen made a mistake or the ball turned a fraction more than anticipated; then Shami’s bouncers caused some havoc.
So the tour party heads to Mumbai two down with two to play and the outlook is bleak. The players now have five days’ break before preparations start for the fourth Test. Do not begrudge them that. They train as assiduously as any England side but now the need to refresh after five sapping Tests in the sub-continent is urgent. Whether a few days’ rest in Mumbai, Dubai or Goa will do the trick is, however, debatable.
The problems stem more from tired minds than crumbling bodies - although there are obviously fitness doubts about Stuart Broad and Hameed.
Run-scoring at the highest level requires fresh minds as well as fit bodies; it is not a mechanical process. It is easy to identify that England’s main problem in this series is scoring enough first innings runs, but this is tough to resolve.
Trying to win Tests in India without those runs at the start is the equivalent of playing football or rugby with a porous defence or winning tennis matches without a reliable serve.
There is, of course, no guarantee that five days off will solve the problem. From personal memory of distant tours a period of R and R can have the opposite effect to the one intended. Having let go for a few days it can be hard to get back in that hard-nosed groove again. Indeed the preparation for the fourth Test will present quite a challenge to the well-stocked management team. However they approach their task after a second crushing defeat in a row the chances of England squaring the series now seems on a par with the likelihood of old Beefy switching to “Remain” in a second EU referendum.
There were chinks of light for England on the final day. Once again Hameed had us searching for superlatives. He did not appear until No8 and that surely reflected the gravity of the injury to the little finger on his left-hand. Yet he managed to bat with the poise and judgment of a veteran and without too much obvious discomfort.
When in harness with Joe Root, who top-scored with 78, Hameed defended all the while but he did so with such positive, decisive footwork. He even has the confidence to hold his pose for a second or two, just in case any photographers are interested. After another forward defensive my interpreter told me the reaction around the bat. “That’s all he knows how to do,” they chirped, which was disproved rather brilliantly in a heartwarming last wicket partnership with Jimmy Anderson.
Having mustered 23 from 127 balls Hameed now plundered 36 from 29. He hit his second six in Test cricket off Ashwin and improvised brilliantly against spin and seam alike for half an hour. Here was further confirmation that England have a little gem in their ranks, though he will not play any further part in this series as he will return to England after this Test for an operation on his finger.
Hameed brings to mind Root batting in his debut in Nagpur four years ago so naturally does he get into position against the spinners. Here Root himself experienced few difficulties throughout the morning session, picking off runs without too much trouble on a pitch that never deteriorated as expected.
His 78 was admirable, but not decisive and it was ended by a fine catch at slip by Ajinkya Rahane as Root drove away from his body.
Otherwise there was not much to cheer for the tourists. Gareth Batty was lbw second ball to Jadeja; Jos Buttler flickered hitting a six to get off the mark, which reflected his determination to bat positively. His inclusion is surely an experiment worth pursuing in Mumbai. Chris Woakes batted well until the advent of the second new ball, which soon struck him on the helmet, having been propelled in that direction by Shami. The next ball was another fine bouncer and Woakes could only fend the ball in the air to the waiting keeper. Two balls later Rashid hooked limply at another short delivery and was caught at fine leg for a duck.
Despite the early loss of Murali Vijay, who became Woakes’ second wicket of the series, there were no alarms for India. Parthiv Patel went on the rampage, racing to his half-century in 39 balls, making a clear case for his retention in the process. Cheteshwar Pujara top-edged against Rashid but soon the irrepressible Patel lofted a drive to extra cover to win the match from an off-break from Batty, probably the last one he will bowl in his Test career.
(Guardian service)
