Caribbean Times 34th Issue - Friday 11th November 2016

18 c a r i b b e a n t i m e s . a g
Friday 11th November 2016
Stokes ton leaves India a big task
For Sale
Ben Stokes became the third centurion
of the England innings.
RAJKOT - On the eve of
the Test the Indian government
discontinued the use of
currency notes of denomination
of INR 500 and above.
The memo was clearly not
sent to the England cricket
team, who raised the first 500
against India in India since,
well, they did it themselves
four years ago in Kolkata.
After a perfect first day of
the series, England continued
to dominate the sloppy hosts
who added two drops, a catch
missed because of the captain’s
enthusiasm, and various
instances of misfields and
lazy legs allowing extra runs.
The India openers passed the
first stage of what is going to
be a test of character by batting
out 23 overs without drama
even though the odd ball
misbehaved.
While the batsmen made
England’s bowlers work hard,
making the most of India’s
largesse in the field was Ben
Stokes, who became the third
centurion of the innings to
go with Joe Root and Moeen
Ali, who began the day on 99.
Stokes banished the memories
of his three ducks in three
innings against India with an
all-out assault in the first session,
which brought him 65
off 95 and yielded England
139 runs for the loss of two
wickets. Once they began to
lose wickets in the second
session, England shelved the
attacking intent and began to
bat time: on these modern Indian
pitches you want to score
all your runs in the first innings,
and even if they come
slowly they make sure the opposition
bats on a pitch with
more wear and tear.
At any rate, a few balls
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had begun to turn sharply,
uneven bounce made more
appearances, and some of the
reverse swing was stark. At
one point, R Ashwin, bowling
from around the wicket, got
one to turn and bounce sharply
past Stokes’ bat. Stokes just
smiled. The smile of a man
who knew his side already
had 377 for 5 on the board.
They ended up with 537.
Put under such intense
pressure for the first time under
Virat Kohli, India’s fielding
went to pieces. Every
time the ball went to Gautam
Gambhir, the batsmen
fancied the extra run. Ashwin
and Amit Mishra are not
the fastest men either; at one
point Mishra conceded three
singles in three overs when
fielding pretty tight at mid-on.
Shockingly, though, Wriddhiman
Saha, reputed to be a
good technical wicketkeeper
who has also rescued India
with the bat on at least three
occasions in the last four completed
Tests, was shown up as
he dropped Stokes twice.
Keeping wicket for the
first time with a side scoring
300 in India, Saha’s feet
didn’t go to his left on both
occasions. He just dived to his
left, shelling a difficult first
one and a regulation one after
that. Both were on the cut off
the bowling of Umesh Yadav
- making that four drops out
of five off his bowling - with
Stokes on 60 and 61. Whether
it was some effect of the 14th
delivery of the day, with the
new ball, which reared from
just short of a length and wobbled
late to nearly hit him in
cont’d on pg 19