The fifth Test is running a familiar course. England’s openers made a good start without making it count. The spinners run through the middle order and Ben Foakes is strokeless with the tail.
A spell of five for eight in 36 balls, from 175-2 to 183-8, ripped the heart out of England and now we are in full on end of tour-itis territory.
Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Ben Stokes were all gone without the scoring changing from 175. Bairstow hit two sixes, went past 6,000 runs and was dropped twice in a frantic innings on his 100th Test.
Stokes was again stuck on the crease, out for a six ball duck, unable to read the flight and variations of wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav, who has a five for on day one of a Test and has tipped this series India’s way since being recalled after the defeat in Hyderabad.
It is practically unheard of for besieged batsmen to turn the tide in India against such quality spin bowling and England fell apart in the afternoon against Kuldeep, Ashwin and Jadeja who share all eight wickets to fall.
Zak Crawley played some superb shots in 79 but he was patchy after lunch, India failing to review a close in catch that would have been out and Jadeja missing a caught and bowled in his first over.
Kuldeep beat Crawley in the flight with a beauty that dipped, turned and hit the stumps. Root, Bairstow and Stokes all burned reviews as England again paid for a madcap half hour. Tom Hartley slogged one in the air and Mark Wood added another, propping forward and edging to slip. You can’t blame Foakes but 8 off 33 balls is probably not going to do his long term chances any good either with this management unless he tries something different after tea.
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