CHENNAI: It took exactly 60 minutes of play on Saturday for England to snuff out any glimmer of hope that the Indians may have had of escaping from Leeds unscathed. By then, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane were all back in the pavilion, leaving the hosts with the perfunctory task of completing formalities. They did so just a few minutes before the lunch interval, bowling India out for 278 and notching up a resounding victory by an innings and 76 runs to level the series 1-1.
There were some positives in India's response with the bat on Friday, but the second new ball — available to the England bowlers right at the start of Day 4 — helped the hosts inflict decisive blows. Any chance of India taking the game deep into the fourth day rested on how Pujara and Kohli — who had done well on Friday — negotiated the opening spells of James Anderson and Ollie Robinson, but they weren't able to surmount that challenge effectively.
The England bowlers’ execution was not up to their usual standards on Friday, resulting in a few more deliveries on the pads of the Indian batsmen. The necessary correction was made on Saturday morning. They went back to bowling a disciplined line and length outside off-stump and testing the technique of the Indian batsmen with their unrelenting accuracy. The day started with 20 dot balls and the 21st was the wicket of Pujara (91), who shouldered arms to a nip-backer from Robinson and allowed the ball to thud into his pads. Even though umpire Richard Kettleborough did not think the ball was going on to hit the stumps, a review from Joe Root proved otherwise.
Kohli reached his first half-century of the series and fleetingly offered hope of turning it into something far bigger, but the combine of Anderson and Robinson was simply terrific. It was Robinson who drew the outside edge of Kohli's bat, but the pressure created by his senior partner was equally significant. Robinson ended up getting his second five-wicket haul in just his fourth Test, suggesting that he is ready to take over the mantle once the likes of Anderson and Stuart Broad are ready to pass the baton.
It was not the performance on Saturday, of course, that was to blame for India’s defeat. The fact that they were bundled out for just 78 on the opening day meant that they were always playing catch-up and it needed something dramatic for India to overturn their fortunes at Headingley. It is a venue where such miracles have happened in the past, but it is the Englishmen who have been on the right side of those results.
There is not much time for India to regroup ahead of the next Test at The Oval, starting on Thursday. While there is no need to press the panic button – India had the better of the exchanges in the first two Tests – there are a few areas for the visitors to reflect on. Foremost among them will be for the batsmen to soak up the pressure at key junctures and avoid losing wickets in clusters. Even after the Indian top-order had done its job in the second innings, they lost their final eight wickets for just 63 runs.
“The things we need to reflect on are the mistakes that happened. As I have said in the past, when we have lost, we have played sessions that have been way below par. Those are the areas that we need to plug in. Like on Saturday morning (flurry of wickets), we need to look at how we can control that tide and find ways out of difficult situations. These are the only things. You cannot become a bad team overnight,” Kohli reflected.