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

The moment England were bowled 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 pitch 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 third 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 debate around the quality of the pitch which was rated as a ‘beach’ by former England captain Michael Vaughan.

When India started to collapse in the first session, there were 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 a 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 back foot 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 much-awaited hundred. 

On the other hand, Ashwin was continuing on his merry way and defied all England bowlers in a pitch and narratives defying innings that lasted 148 deliveries. He had alerted a warning to the English camp a day 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 finished 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 and deflated the England team on the third day.

After teaching his English counterparts how to bowl on this pitch in the first innings on the second day, the batsmen inside Ashwin rose to the occasion 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 disposal from Olly Stone’s pace to Stuart Broad’s leg cutters, but Ashwin, the batsman was in a different zone and the feeling that he carried his own pitch to the middle must have gone through the frustrated minds of Englishmen.

Ashwin was batting with immense confidence on his defence, something that must have irked the English batsmen who could not muster him with the bowl in his hand, but was proactive to change his approach 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 bowled full in pursuit of taking out his stumps, he was dealt with a punch over his head, while Stone’s short deliveries 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 the off-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 were 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 whatever 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 in front 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 reprieve when Rishabh Pant could not hang onto an edge from his bat off Ashwin, but he was proved too weak 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 guilty 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 accurate Axar Patel caught a nervous Joe Root right back in the crease. Umpire Nitin Menon did not pay heed to vociferous appeal from the Indians, and the hosts opted for the DRS. Turned out, Menon had adjudged it not out presuming the appeal was for a caught 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 impact was ruled ‘umpire’s call’ and hence the decision that 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.