NEW DELHI: KL Rahul was leading the group with what seemed like a big speech. A lot of the Indian players, some still holding drinks in their hands, were nodding along. Others were staring into the distance, looking at the vast expanse. A couple of the substitutes were trudging back to the dugout after Shubman Gill took over responsibility of geeing up the fielders.
At the end of the first official break in place on the fourth morning of the second Test, it was fair to say that the hosts were slowly but surely getting more frustrated. One of the overnight batters, John Campbell, had reached a fine 100 while the other, Shai Hope, was looking very untroubled.
Jasprit Bumrah had got the ball to curve back with some reverse but apart from a few balls, the pitch was holding firm. The ball had also gone out of shape and one of the newer ones from the briefcase had done nothing.
This wasn't supposed to be like this.
After enforcing the follow on, the hosts were potentially looking at an innings win. 24 hours later, they were in the middle of an extraordinary general meeting with the leadership group.
That group — after consultation with the bowlers — had tried a few things. A 3-6 leg-side field for spin, a few short balls but Campbell and Hope had thwarted them. India were still very much in control of the situation but the match was meandering, like watching a movie in slow motion.
That's when the carefully constructed jenga had begun to collapse, a day of hard work undone inside 30 overs. It all started because of an error of misjudgement on the part of Campbell. He had reverse swept with a lot of control but picked the wrong ball to attempt it again, this time off Ravindra Jadeja. The fingerspinner had pitched this in a middle and leg line and Campbell missed it completely, the ball sneaking under the bat and crashing into the pads. Most of his reverse sweeps till then had come off balls that were pitched outside the line of the stumps. It was so dead the southpaw didn't even bother to turn around and appeal.
Roston Chase and Hope took the lead but the hosts had a fresh weapon — the new ball. This was a new ball strip and Gill & Co had a limited window to make it count. The shiny red one acted as a sledgehammer as it crashed through Windies' dreams. Just like that, they lost 6/40 across 17 overs.
Coming into the game, the hosts had a lot of practice bowling on new ball surfaces in England. As soon as it was available, Gill wasted no time in bringing back his two pacers and the plan was simple. Bowl tight lines, keep the stumps in play and cut out the singles that were on offer for both Hope and Campbell.
Mohammed Siraj went back to his wobble seam and Hope, even before his century, had started feeling for balls outside the off stump. This one took the inside edge and cannoned onto the stumps, a classic dismissal in these conditions.
With Jasprit Bumrah not as effective, Gill brought back Kuldeep Yadav. With a newer ball, there would be more fizz and he always keeps the stumps in play. That clearly was the assessment behind this move. It paid immediate dividends as Tevin Imlach, who likes to go right back to the spinners on occasions, went right back and was caught in front.
Six balls later, he got one to stop on Chase a touch, whose attempted flick was caught at mid-wicket. Minutes later, the wristspinner was again celebrating, he tossed one up and enticed Khary Pierre into a swipe and the skier was caught by Nitish Reddy at mid-on. From 293/4 to 298/7, this is what a wristspinner can do as they can eliminate the surfaces.
Bumrah was brought back and he promptly rattled the stumps but once the new cherry lost that hardness, the toil resumed. The 10th wicket stand batted on and on before their 79-run alliance was ended by Bumrah.
On other surfaces, a target of 121 could have been imposing but on this — "a typical Delhi wicket" according to Washington Sundar in the post day press conference — the hosts knew they had nothing to worry about. On Tuesday, they will come out, needing 48 more to seal the two-match Test series 2-0 with nine wickets remaining.
