NEW DELHI: Some things are immutable facts, like the laws of nature or the arrow of time. It may finally be time to add the soporific effect of the to the list. Never mind its black soil or any other component — no matter how it is treated or when it is prepared, if the square is not completely underprepared and cracking up, it will be low and slow, will stifle pace and spin alike and have a singular effect on the game for three or more days in a Test.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!This is what happened at the Kotla as India — probably in a hurry to finish off the game — underestimated the tepid nature of the surface. They decided to enforce the follow-on and not rest their bowlers after being in the field for 81.5 overs, 38.5 of those overs coming on the third morning in ’ first innings.
This time the pitch is a unique tale of two halves. From the North End, the bowler will stare down at a barren patch with all the wear and tear and promise of bagfuls of wickets. No doubt it is intended that all the attacking spinners should bowl from this end, like Kuldeep Yadav (5/82 in West Indies’ first innings) did for most of Sunday.
From the South End, the likely quicker bowler or second spinner any captain will go to will see the opposite — a loose, rectangular patch of light green spanning the width of the pitch. Never mind the alterations, though. On the third day of the second Test, the pitch sank into its usual state of torpor and spurred that unlikeliest of happenings in modern cricket — a Windies batting resistance.
It wasn’t for lack of trying from India’s quality bowling arsenal. The pitch simply decided to numb a tired India’s bowling plans into submission, paving the way for a resolute and Shai Hope to pitch their tents out in the middle and stretch the game to another day when the West Indies batted a second time. At stumps, WI were 173/2 and the wickets had simply dried up for India.
The two put on an unbroken 138 runs, the team’s highest partnership of the year. Campbell scored the side’s first half-century of the series and was batting on 87 at stumps. Hope was batting on 66. It is only the first time in six Tests and three series that the Windies have been able to stretch a game to the fourth day.
The cricket wasn’t dull by any means as West Indies resumed at 140/4 with Shai Hope and Tevin Imlach at the crease in their first innings. The surface was low from the start and Bumrah was menacing, but it was Kuldeep who got the important breakthroughs. A magical delivery to Hope drifted away from the batter and went on with the angle as Hope mistakenly played for the turn and lost his wicket.
Kuldeep picked up two wickets in two overs to get rid of both the overnight batters but the first important resistance from the Windies started here, as Khary Pierre and Anderson Phillip kept resolute vigil from the 57th to the 73rd over. That should have raised bells in India’s camp but it didn’t.
When India then enforced the follow on, they also kept their two main attacking options — Kuldeep and Bumrah — in cold storage for when the ball got older, somewhat enabling the Windies resistance as Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Siraj toiled fruitlessly.
Although the day ended as it began, with the prospect of an eventual India win not in much doubt, the Windies can now hope to force the Indian batters out again and bruise their egos a bit.
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