India cut through England amid wickets blitz: third Test, day two – live!

26th over: England 76-7 (Foakes 6, Leach 6) Ashwin over the wicket to Foakes with men around the bat, who are very excited when a ball pops up on the legside but doesn’t go to hand. He’s defending soundly enough by the end of the over. At times like these, batsmen have the right to be a little bit selfish – get yourself a red inker, Ben.

“Lots of talk about the test lasting for two days or may be three,” writes Kumar Pushparaj. “Can we shift the discussion to modern players technique of playing spin? I have grew up watching the cricketers of 90s and I hold that they were far better at playing spin than the current lot.”

And in this case, not lateral spin but guile. This reminds me of the way Australia capitulated to Sri Lanka time and again in 2016. Herath and co weren’t turning it around corners, they were doing the visiting batsmen on the inside edge with arm balls.

25th over: England 75-7 (Foakes 6, Leach 6) Jack Leach, that’ll do! He jumps down at his opposing number Axar and launches him over long on for SIX! The lead is 42. I’ll do my best to come to your emails soon but it’s hard graft with wickets falling and spinners in tandem!

24th over: England 68-7 (Foakes 5, Leach 0) The Indian champion is the second fastest bowler to 400 scalps, behind only Murali. He’s reached the mark in just 77 Tests at an average of 25 and there have been a staggering 29 bags of five along the way – just one behind Jimmy Anderson in half the matches played. He’s every chance of picking up his 30th by the time this England nightmare is over.

Oh yes, that’s very out. Archer tried to shovel a full one to the legside but didn’t make contact, which meant the ball was only going one place: middle stump. Ashwin has 400 Test wickets!

23rd over: England 68-6 (Foakes 5, Archer 0) Axar doesn’t miss his spot but he constantly mixes up the speed and degree of spin he puts on each delivery – it’s a true joy to watch a tweaker applying this much pressure. Foakes gets through it.

Bowled by the straight one! Pope is beaten by the drift, quite comprehensively. And that moves Ashwin to 399 Test wickets.

22nd over: England 66-6 (Foakes 3)

21st over: England 61-5 (Pope 8, Foakes 2) Axar continues, a man with the accuracy of Jadeja but with an extra six inches of height – what a combination. Three catching men in close on the off-side with the left-armer angling in at Foakes and he takes a single to cover after making solid contact, getting through easily. The Surrey stumper looks more at ease than most against this probing attack.

“Hi Adam.” Allo, Peter Salmon. “I’m guessing that when historians are writing about this game they will assume that the day/night thing was a factor. In fact, the only passage where the batsman were on top was under lights yesterday. I’m just want this on the public record so I don’t have to spend the next 20 years of my life pointing out everyone’s error.”

Spot on. I tweeted earlier than ten wickets fell in the space of 21.3 overs from Kohli’s dismissal through to Bairstow’s. What a sport.

20th over: England 60-5 (Pope 8, Foakes 1) And so, with the match, um, delicately poised, I’m going to hand over to Adam Collins. All emails to him here, please. Bye!

19th over: England 56-5 (Pope 5, Foakes 0) There’s absolutely no way this is going to a third day. “I don’t know why people are saying this is a good Test match,” rages Ian Naylor. “It’s really Test match 100 – ridiculously truncating the game by producing an unplayable pitch is no different than shortening the game by reducing the overs.”

The straight one again, and Root instantly spins and trudges from the field after getting one he didn’t consider worth reviewing. That’s the day’s 12th wicket and it’s not yet halfway through, it’s Axar’s 10th wicket of the match, and he’s just been too good on this pitch. England’s lead is 23.

18th over: England 54-4 (Root 17, Pope 4) Pope gets off the mark with a top-edged reverse sweep for four. We finally see ball tracking of the Stokes lbw, and it would have jut clipped leg stump, been umpire’s call, and therefore not worth reviewing.

17th over: England 50-3 (Root 17, Stokes 25) Due to an administrative error I didn’t post the 17th-over update before Stokes was dismissed at the start of the 18th, and now it all seems terribly out of date so let’s just forget it ever happened, yes? Anyway, the players are taking drinks.

This one definitely didn’t hit the bat at any point, and England don’t bother reviewing (though I thought it might have been heading down the leg side). It did look like Stokes made a last-ditch attempt to send it upstairs, but a second too late.

16th over: England 48-3 (Root 17, Stokes 24) This is already England’s 13th-biggest partnership of the series, and their second-biggest of the match. “As this match is likely to be over in two days but they’ve made plans and sold tickets for five, couldn’t they just start all over again tomorrow and see if they can last three days this time?” wonders Robin Hazlehurst. “Or just keep playing until the five days are up regardless of how many innings they each have? Maybe Bairstow will actually score a run in the 12th innings.”

15th over: England 46-3 (Root 16, Stokes 23) A loud lbw appeal against Root, but the umpire shakes his head. And then another one two balls later, and this time he is out! And then he isn’t!

A nightmare review for the third umpire, with the ball hitting bat and pad at near enough the same time and a succession of camera angles showing bewildering varieties of similar things – in one it’s clear it was bat first, in the next it’s obvious the pad made first contact. Eventually he decides that UltraEdge shows first contact with willow, and the captain is saved.

India are celebrating, but after a chat the batsmen decide to send it upstairs!

14th over: England 44-3 (Root 14, Stokes 23) Successive Stokes boundaries, one through midwicket followed by a superlative reverse sweep, against Ashwin. The last ball of the over, though, spins wildly and whistles past the bat.

13th over: England 34-3 (Root 14, Stokes 13) Two singles, and England lead by a run! Just give the ball to Root and they should be able to defend this.

12th over: England 32-3 (Root 13, Stokes 12) Ashwin bowls, and Stokes heaves one through midwicket for four, a handsome shot. Then the heaves the next into the air off the top edge, but it drops over Axar at midwicket and lands safe!

11th over: England 26-3 (Root 13, Stokes 6) “Batting is so tough out there,” writes Tom Bowtell, “I wonder if it is worth England declaring behind and sticking India back in?”

10th over: England 24-3 (Root 12, Stokes 5) A wild swing from Stokes, who is lucky to get nothing on it, and then an edge to second slip but the ball bounces well before the fielder.

9th over: England 22-3 (Root 12, Stokes 3) Sibley’s shot selection there was pretty appalling. There is a pleasing sense of complete wildness about all of this, and the drama is really very compelling, but it’s also quite disheartening.

A very slight edge, a fine catch from Pant, and England still trail by 14 as they lose their third wicket!

Sibley goes down on one knee to lift the ball through midwicket, doesn’t get the ball anywhere near midwicket, and India think there’s an edge! The batsman reviews instantly …

8th over: England 19-2 (Root 12, Sibley 7) Ashwin gets one to rear up into Root, and it comes off, well, something – glove, probably – and drops just short of short leg.

7th over: England 17-2 (Root 10, Sibley 7) I think this is the longest period of vaguely sensible cricket we’ve had today. Sure, it’s not saying much, but small steps and all that. England trail by 16.

6th over: England 16-2 (Root 9, Sibley 7) “I could be wrong but am pretty sure Bairstow was dropped because he kept leaving a big gap between bat and pad and was getting bowled through the gate,” writes Will Lane. “Following today’s dismissal it looks as though he hasn’t addressed that flaw in his game, which makes the decision to bring him in at the expense of Burns (as then Crawley would have been at no.3) seem a bit harsh.” Before this match though Bairstow’s record in Asia, and in India in particular, was a fair amount better than his record overall (career average 34.45, but in India 40.11). Today he really put the dismal into dismissal, though, and his recent record in India both home and away has been abysmal.

5th over: England 13-2 (Root 7, Sibley 6) “I’m loving this new two-day format in cricket,” writes Tim Woods. “The perfect amount for those who find one-dayers too short, but no longer have time for Test matches.”

4th over: England 10-2 (Root 5, Sibley 5) Dropped! What a catch that wasn’t really very close to being, as Sibley sends the ball wide of Pujara at leg slip, who dives and gets fingertips to it. Then another edge, this time the ball dropping well short of slip.

The ball would have cleared the stumps by a few inches, and India lose a review!

Looked a decent shout again, but the umpire was the very definition of unmoved…

3rd over: England 6-2 (Root 4, Sibley 2) Axar is bowling beautifully, landing every ball on the same spot, and from there nobody really knows what’s going to happen. “Plenty of evidence here for the ‘life is a just a simulation’ theorists,” writes Daniel Shepherd. “Are we actually watching a computer game from the future and some 13 year old in 2046 has it in cheat mode?”

2nd over: England 5-2 (Root 4, Sibley 1) Ah, three minutes of relative sanity. I’m still sifting through all the emails from happy Englishmen I got at the end of the India innings, all of which I fear are already some way out of date. A point of information on Root’s ranking among all five-fers in Test history – he’s actually joint eighth, full list here.

1st over: England 1-2 (Root 1, Sibley 0) Root’s first ball turns sharply and narrowly misses the edge, his second goes straight but he gets some bat on it. Bairstow, refreshed after a period back home with his feet up, has come back into the team with his experience and his track record of success against spin and got two ducks, the second of them as ugly as any two-ball duck you ever will see.

What on earth is going on here? The wildest opening three deliveries of any innings I’ve ever seen, Bairstow misses a straight one and England are two down!

The ball was going over the stumps! That is pure luck, and Bairstow’s shot pure filth.

Axar’s got him here, for what will be a hat-trick, and England will be two down after two balls when this is confirmed in a few moments!

Crawley is bowled, first ball of the innings!

The players are back out, ready for England’s second innings. “Hi Simon,” writes Simon Lea. “Time to get a new T-Shirt printed….
W00000000000W0W0000004010W00010000101W”. Aren’t those the lyrics to a Kate Bush song?

Joe Root has the joint fifth cheapest five-fer in the entire history of Test cricket (full list here, thanks to Stephen Brown), this is anyone’s match/series, and the players take lunch/tea/whatever 20 minutes early needing to dust themselves down, cool themselves off, and work out how to score runs against these opponents on this wicket.

Joe Root has a five-fer! 6.2 overs, eight runs, five wickets, and he leaves the field waving the ball in the air!

This looks out, but again they might as well roll the DRS dice…

53rd over: India 144-9 (Bumrah 1, Ishant 9) A long delay between overs, and then Bumrah edges Leach’s first delivery high above Stokes, who flings out a hand, deflects it upwards, spins and dives backwards to complete the catch. It drops out of reach, which is a shame because that would have been an all-time great bit of fielding, one for the highlights reels and compilation DVDs, if such things still exist.

He did get some bat on it. Quite a lot of bat, really.

The umpire says yes, the batsman really might as well review it and didn’t hesitate. Did he get some bat on it?

52nd over: India 144-9 (Bumrah 1, Ishant 9) A single off the handle for Bumrah, the ball looping just beyond Pope at short leg, and Root has to wait for his five-fer. India lead by 32 runs.