WE ARE IN FOR A TREAT ON DAY 2...

The first day of 2nd test at Vishakhapatanam went according to script for India.The only pity was the failure of KL Rahul.Virat Kohli flicked the coin and Alastair Cook called it wrong this time.Kohli had no hesitation in choosing to bat first on a typical indian pitch that was supposed to turn after lunch on Day 2 according to the curator.KL Rahul made duck on his comeback after scoring a fifty and a hundred against Rajasthan just a couple of days back.He hung his bat out way outside the off stump only to edge the ball straight to Ben Stokes at 3rd slip.After playing some exquisite drives,Murli Vijay got a surprise bouncer from James Anderson,who was also making his comeback after 3 months,ending up brushing his gloves and a simple catch to Ben Stokes.Then walked in Virat Kohli to join Cheteshwar Pujara and they were involved in a wonderful fluent partnership of 226 runs.We could see absolutely every shot in the book.Pujara in particular provided a masterclass of how to play spin with stepping down the track every now and then and just pushing the ball in the gap to collect boundries.Kohli was aggressive as well as watchful at the same time.Anderson and Broad tried to get him driving outside the off stump,the line which landed him in trouble in 2014,but Kohli wasn't going to edge one of those this time.Both of them were on counterattacking mode in the last one hour of the second session as they scored as many as 60-70 runs in that period.Both Kohli and Pujara reached their centuries without any difficulties in the 3rd session.After his fluent knock of 117,Pujara finally fell to a good length ball from James Anderson caught behind the wicket by Jonny Bairstow.Ajinkya Rahane was at no 5.He tried to play some shots early in his innings but he wasn't timing the ball well so he opted to play defensively.It didn't help him either.He fell victim to James Anderson at the stroke of stumps.
        The thing which struck me though was that the ease with which the Indians played out the English spinner who looked unplayable in the 2nd innings at Rajkot.The key to their success was I think the change in the surface.English spinners got the ball to turn it mile and turn it quickly with some extra bit of bounce in Rajkot,in contrast in Vizag,the pitch provided very slow turn due to which batsmen were able to adjust according to the length of the ball and play accordingly.
       With that late breakthrough,England have given themselves an opportunity to try and force their way back into the match.But with Kohli batting on 151,India will fancy a huge total if they can play out the first one hour of the 1st session on Day 2............

ADVANTAGE ENGLAND ON DAY 4

       Very few Indian fans could afford to smile after the fourth day's play in Rajkot.It was a dominating display by English batters not before they were frustrated by Indian lower middle order.Fourth Day did not start according to the script with Ajinkya Rahane playing across the line to Zafar Ansari only to let the ball go straight through the gate and knock the bails down.After a few overs,Adil Rashid delivered such a ball which Virat Kohli should try to erase from his memories as soon as he can.Virat pulled a good length ball which bounced more than he must have anticipated towards mid wicket.The only mistake he made though,was that he went back an inch too much.As a result he fell victim to one of the most unlikeliest ways of getting out in the game of cricket,Hit Wicket.At Lunch,India were 411/6,still trailing England by 126 runs with Ashwin and Saha at the crease.
       Ashwin and Saha played well for the first one hour of the second session.After hitting a six straight down the ground,Saha got out trying to cut Adil Rashid who was consistently extracting extra bit of bounce from the surface.Jadeja's stay at the crease was a brief one as he fell for just 12 again falling victim to Adil Rashid who again got the ball to bounce more than the batsman was anticipating.But Ashwin at the other end was steady and didn't look in any sort of discomfort.In fact,he was playing as good as Rahane or Kohli.It was 'Ashwin the Batsman' this time who was contributing to India's cause.He stroked his way to an eligent looking 70 before slogging one to deep mid wicket into the hands of Zafar Ansari looking for some runs with the number 11 Mohommad Shami.India was bowled out for 488.Adil Rashid was the standout performer with 4 wickets while Chris Woakes toiled away all day without any success.Though India fell only 49 short,the thing about England which impressed everyone was that they came up wih a specific plan all the time and bowled in order to execute the same.
      Alastair Cook and Haseeb Hameed stepped on the crease with a lead of 49 behind them.Ashwin and Jadeja must have been encouraged by seeing the bounce English Spinners were getting,but there was absolutely no demons in the pitch or Cook and the debutant Hameed made it look incredibly easy.Hameed cruised to his maiden fifty and we could see the glimpse of the 2012 version of Alastair Cook.He and Hameed finished the day not out with the scores of 46 and 62 respectively with England finishing on 114/0 leading India by 163 runs.
     Likely scenario on the last day of this test match would be England batting for may be 20-25 overs and making India bat for 60-65 overs trying to win a famous test match.England have cought India in the corner as they have ensured that India can not win this match unless England lose all 10 wickets for very few runs which is very unlikely to happen.