×

India vs England 2014, 3rd Test Day 4 Preview: A lot of possibilities have opened up

Indian lower order wiping out the deficit will open up possibilities moving into the final day of the Test.

Rohit-Sharma-(R)-of-India-shows-his-frustration-after-being-caught-by-Stuart-Broad
Rohit Sharma (right) departed after playing a poor shot on Day 3 © Getty Images

By Arunabha Sengupta

Ageas Bowl: Jul 30, 2014

Yet another glorious day has dawned in what seems to be a summer tailor made by the gods of cricket. The sun is up early and bright, smiling widely from the spotless blue sky. The temperature, shooting to tropical levels yesterday, has also turned a shade cooler. Running in with the ball will continue to be arduous, but may not be as blistering a task as it had been on the two previous days.

The Indian position is rather dodgy, with 47 runs to avoid follow-on and only two wickets in the bank. Yet, with the frontline England pacemen having sent down more than 20 overs each in the searing heat of the day before, it is highly unlikely that Alastair Cook will ask India to bat again even if they bowl India out for less than 370. As Sunil Gavaskar said yesterday, the chances are that England will go in again and set India a target of scoring 400 to win or batting out four sessions to save the match. Exactly the same sentiment was tweeted by Aakash Chopra.

With Mohammed Shami and Pankaj Singh to bat with, there have already been indications that MS Dhoni intends to go berserk . He has batted with commendable self-denial so far, and has struck the ball cleanly when required. With the ball already 22 overs old, it may not move around too extravagantly and the Indian captain may back himself to score some quick runs to eat into the English lead when play resumes today. The first hour, therefore, can make for some entertaining cricket. As far as England is concerned, they will be keen to knock over the last two wickets before frustration creeps in – as has often been the case with them in the current series.

As is common in such scenarios, in case follow on is not enforced or is taken out of equation by the Indian tail, the game will open up with plenty of possibilities. There will be the usual speculation and conjectures about the time of declaration, the probable target, the estimated amount of overs required to bowl India out the second time and even the remote chance of India making an effort to go for the runs. The Indian batsmen, most of them guilty of wasting good starts and throwing wickets away to lapses in concentration and poor strokes, will look towards putting their heads down and giving a much better account of themselves.

The largely careless loss of wickets yesterday has of course left the Indian team and their fans disappointed, but it has breathed life into the game. There will be a lot to look forward to in the final two days.

Complete coverage of India’s tour of England 2014

(Arunabha Sengupta is a cricket historian and Chief Cricket Writer at CricketCountry.He writes about the history and the romance of the game, punctuated often by opinions about modern day cricket, while his post-graduate degree in statistics peeps through in occasional analytical pieces. The author of three novels, he can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/senantix)

trending this week