India v England: third Test, day three – live | England in India 2024

WICKET! Ahmed b Siraj 6 (England 314-8)

69th over: England 310-7 (Hartley 9, Ahmed 2) This England innings isn’t over just yet. Hartley is showing fight, and skill, as he moves his feet with confidence to come down the track and meet Jadeja’s flighted ball with a swish of his bat as he picks the gap on the inside of mid-on. Who doesn’t love a bit of spinner on spinner action? Ahmed also looks comofrtable as he pushes s single through the off side.

68th over: England 305-7 (Hartley 5, Ahmed 1) Swift work from a diving Jadeja in the covers prevents Ahmed from getting off the mark with a boundary. That was a textbook back-foot punch. The kid can play, no doubt about it. He does get his first run of the innings with an inside edge that dribbles down to backward square leg. Time for Bumrah to arrow a few in at the toes I reckon.

Silver linings:

67th over: England 304-7 (Hartley 5, Ahmed 0) Just before that Jadeja wicket of Stokes I was typing up a spiel about Sharma’s misplaced faith and why Kuldeep should have been bowling. Shows what I know! Anyway, Hartley drilled a good looking cover drive for four as Jadeja gave it a bit of air. The rest of the over is tidy and keeps Hartley on the defence.

66th over: England 300-7 (Hartley 1, Ahmed 0) I hope England’s spinners didn’t have a large lunch because they’re both out there much earlier than expected. Foakes and Stokes looked in complete control but both went – rather tamely – in consecutive deliveries. Siraj is a wonderful operator and it was a slight change of pace that nabbed that Foakes wicket. Hartley, now the senior batter, ends the over with a single off his inside edge to keep the strike.

WICKET! Foakes c Sharma b Siraj 13 (England 299-7)

WICKET! Stokes c Bumrah b Jadeja 41 (England 299-6)

64th over: England 297-5 (Stokes 39, Foakes 13) Sharma has set a funky field for Foakes. One slip but two catchers in front of the wicket on the on-side. They’re close together around short-midwicket. Neither could do anything though as Foakes leaned into a perfectly balanced punch that looked destined to end in a simple single but kept scampering away off the surface and reached the cover boundary. Wonderful timing. Two more off an inside edge means Foakes is climbing through the gears after lunch.

63rd over: England 291-5 (Stokes 39, Foakes 7) It’s Jadeja, rather than Kuldeep, who opens the other end after lunch. Flatter than the wrist spinner, he’ll challenge the batters in a different way. One to Stokes kept a little low. One to keep an eye on. Foakes gets a single with a delicate cut.

Andrew Benton has gone early on a bold prediction.

Let’s hope you don’t jinx ‘em:

Hello Daniel. Unfortunate dismissals indeed, but Bazball teams don’t let such drawbacks get to them – the last five wickets will surely go for 150 or so (fingers crossed).

62nd over: England 290-5 (Stokes 39, Foakes 6) Siraj gets us going again with a maiden. Round the wicket to Stokes, he’s landing it outside the off stump and testing Stokes’ technique. The England skipper os solid in defence while shuffling across to cover his wickets.

We’re back. Big session coming up. Then again, they’re all pretty big, aren’t they?

Is England’s hubris the reason they’re facing a mountain? Graeme Arthur thinks so:

Last night I heard Ashwin’s post match interview suggesting the match was ‘neck and neck’. TalkSPORT’s bullish commentary team characterised this as defeatist (which is possibly the reason I haven’t warmed to their coverage). What struck me most was when he suggested that India would keep at it, hoping that “some of these airy fairy shots would go to hand”. It just seemed like a peculiarly Yorkshire vernacular expression I was listening to. Now I’ve woken up and it has come to pass.

“Morning Daniel,”

Hey Anthony White. How are ya?

”Almost nodded back off to sleep waiting for the start of play here in France! A comment with nothing to do with Root or the immediate state of the English team : I’m a great fan of Foakes and since my own father captained a (nondescript!)team from behind the stumps I have a bias for the man in charge to be literally at the centre of play, right up close to what batters and bowlers are doing.

”En plus, I think Foakes has an excellent ability of reading the play, very grown up! As a vice captain and eventually the captain, I would be interested to see his decisions. Ok, what do you expect for a comment having been awake since three o’clock!Thanks for delightful coverage”

Thanks for dropping by and hope you’re getting some rest now. I’m also a fan of Foakes but I winder if his batting is good enough to keep the gloves at home. I mean, he’s obviously a very good batter. But my sense is they want a more explosive batting unit on seaming wickets, rather than a ‘keeper who can handle the unique challenge of the sub continent.

But yes. I’d have no complaints seeing more of Foakes.

Naturally, there’s more chat about Root’s baffling dismissal:

BTA Miller:

The two Yorkshire players have now batted 10 times in the series for 168 runs. When will this be discussed seriously? If their names were Pietersen or Gower they would be denounced

Yikes. At least Wood and Stokes are doing it for the northerners.

William Vignoles:

Not going to go into the dismissal as i have not had a chance to see it yet, but has everyone forgotten that Root mostly batted beautifully in his last series? He scored a brilliant century in the Ashes opener, and was only denied two more at Old Trafford and Headingley (I think?) by two absurd grubbers that shot along the deck. The bigger problem might be that there weren’t any tests between July and January, and so he had no chance to maintain that rhythm.

Have you changed your mind since watching it?

John Withington:

I find myself disagreeing with the commentators a lot today! It’s not “execution” which is the issue with the great Root debate. Personally I don’t have an issue with Duckett’s seemingly awful dismissal. It was the “right thing” to be going at the ball. It was poorly executed due to any number of random factors, including a fair amount of turn. But pre-meditating a “coin-toss” of a shot at a key moment isn’t random. And these moments are far-reaching. Every time opponents are seemingly under the cosh there’s always the likelihood that they’ll be gifted a way back into the game. It’s draining the positive impact of the aggressive dominance of England’s style of play.

Yeah, agreed. Ducket’s wicket is one of those things that can happen with a set batter. Besides, you earn some leeway after scoring 150.

Will Ellen:

I would take issue with the “perhaps Englands greatest” line about Root. A sporting careervis about more than just statistics. Stokes numbers dont do him justice, and conversely, and arguably, Roots flatter him. The greatest perform when their teams need them the most. And here? When considering the match and series situation, against one of the greatest fast bowlers in history, he deploys a shot that is, frankly, just staggeringly stupid.

I’m sticking with my original thought. Root is absolute class and, as I said before, perhaps England’s greatest ever player. Stokes is up there. Perhaps he’s England’s greatest ever player. They’re both in the ‘Perhaps Greatest Ever’ XI.

Oi Ben! You there? We’ve got some tips for you:

“Message to a baffled Ben Stokes. The (Rolling in) Kuldeep googly is really so obvious to spot … viewed in slow motion and from behind the bowler’s arm. It’s an easy game sometimes.”

That’s from Brian Withington who makes it sound so simple while chucking in a sumptuous pun.

England’s gaffes will hog the headlines, but we shouldn’t forget Kuldeep’s excellent work across that session.

Lunch: England 290-5 (Stokes 39, Foakes 6)

60th over: England 289-5 (Stokes 38, Foakes 6) Stokes takes a single to start Siraj’s over and Foakes is compact for the rest. There’s a good leave in there as well to one that angled back in off the deck. I’ve liked this spell from Siraj. It’s been controlled after some early radar struggles. Despite the bumps this morning England are still batting at 4.8 an over. For what it’s worth, the West Indies registered 288-9 from as many overs in the 1979 World Cup final. How the game has changed, eh?

59th over: England 288-5 (Stokes 38, Foakes 6) Foakes has played that brilliantly. Tight on defence and with quick feet, when Kuldeep over pitches England’s keeper skips down the pitch and flicks a wonderful shot through midwicket for four. That forces Kuldeep to change his angle of attack but Foakes’ defence remains impenetrable. Top work.

15 minutes to lunch and Kuldeep has potentially a full over at Foakes. A short mid-on and a slip. He’ll look to drag him forward and bring one back in through the gate or onto the pads.

58th over: England 284-5 (Stokes 37, Foakes 2) Stokes is far more comfortable against the seamer. it helps when he’s served a half tracker which he can simply swivel on and despatch for four with a controlled pull. He takes two more with a nudge off his hips but almost drags a wide delivery back on his stumps. Siraj throws his head back and Stokes makes an ‘oooh’ sound. That was an ugly swipe and would have been a sickening way to go. Other than that, though, he was in complete control.

57th over: England 277-5 (Stokes 31, Foakes 2) Kuldeep is producing a jaffa every over. Another ripper from the rough spins and bounces. Maybe too much on both counts as it beats Stokes’ outside edge. He then drags down and Stokes cuts for two down to deep point. A single off the top edge – which had the Indian fielders interested for a second – of a sweep follows before a extra turn to Foakes catches the leading edge. Excellent wrist spin bowling. Could watch this all day.

56th over: England 275-5 (Stokes 28, Foakes 2) Just a single from the last ball of that Siraj over – a mow from Srtokes behind square on the leg side. England perhaps dropping anchor until the lunch break. At least, that would be the smart play which means we’ll probably see a double-step reverse-sweep from someone.

55th over: England 274-5 (Stokes 27, Foakes 2) Great set from Kuldeep. He starts by almost clipping Foakes’ off-stump and then unleashes an absolute gem from the back of the hand that bamboozled Stokes as it turned back into him and also beat the keeper who similarly didn’t pick the googly. Two singles – one for each batter – keeps the scoreboard ticking. Not that Kuldeep will mind who’s on strike. He’s into a great groove right now.

For those asking about Duckett’s dismissal, refresh your page and the description will be there (though you might not want to read it if you’re an England fan).

54th over: England 268-5 (Stokes 26, Foakes 1) Siraj has pulled his length back. He gets one to climb on Foakes who manages to swivel on a controlled pull that he squeezes down to fine leg for a single. Not sure how much he knew about it but he got enough bat on that to get off the mark. Stokes cops one on the body as he looks to pull in front of square. I quite like that tactic from Siraj. I’ll be interested to see if he keeps hammering that short length in the next over.

A penny for Joe’s thoughts right now

Should Bazball mean different things for different players?

Dan Langdon has an idea:

Maybe the only really positive difference about Bazball is the Crawley/Duckett partnership and the consistently fearless way in which they set the tone for the innings. Other than that nothing should be different. Pope and Root are naturally fast accumulators so should just play their own game. Bairstow/Brook are both ultra-aggressive so clearly don’t need to change their game. Stokes always takes his time at the beginning of his innings regardless of Bazball – before he changes gear directly from first to sixth.

53rd over: England 266-5 (Stokes 26, Foakes 0) Stokes will continue fighting, no doubt about this. He gets down low and drills a sweep off Kuldeep that screams away to the deep midwicket fence. He again keeps the strike as he leans back and cuts with the spin to the sweeper on the off side. While he’s there England will believe.

52nd over: England 261-5 (Stokes 21, Foakes 0) Siraj from round the wicket to Stokes. He’s varying his length but probing around that fourth stump line. Stokes keeps the strike with a single off the back foot that finds a gap in the covers.

Kim Thronger has an intersting proposal:

“Waking up to find Root gone is not a surprise to me, I’ve thought for some time that his poor run with the bat is affecting his principal job in the team, holding up one end as a spinner. Should he drop down the order to 8 or 9 to relieve the pressure on him?”

I’m not sure that is the solution, but I do like the idea of a fluid batting order. However, Root doesn’t need protecting. He needs a psychological recalibration (if I can tip-toe the line between punditry and pop psychology).

He’s obviously a class act. Maybe England’s greatest ever player. I can’t see this run of form going on forever.

51st over: England 260-5 (Stokes 20, Foakes 0) A wicket maiden has India in control now. that might be Kuldeep’s worst ball of the Test but any clubbie will tell you that dross so often gets wickets. So it proved here. Big job for Foakes. England still trail by 185. Can the ‘keeper keep his captain company for long enough?

I’ve had more correspondence regarding Root’s dismissal, though I feel the chat might shift to Duckett’s own howler. Let’s get the Root chat out of the way:

John Withington: “It’s noticeable that Stokes, as a key architect of the approach, seems immune to the Root interpretation of “Bazball”. Granted, he’s invariably rebuilding the innings after Root and Bairstow these days, but he‘s also playing the moment and to his own strength of building a platform to take advantage later when set. Why does Root seem to so regularly think he has to be the batter that he isn’t in order to fit into the team’s ethos?” – To be fair to John, he sent this before Stokes started unleashing.

Ben Tryer: I‘m still hazily reeling from Root’s decision to get unnecessarily funky with the task at hand, but I think I can understand the logic of the shot. It’s one that brought him plenty of success in those early Stokes-era tests and a way of forcing bowlers off lines and lengths. Bumrah has spent all series popping out of different doors in the corridor of uncertainty to spook Root like a Scooby Doo villain, so trying the scoop felt like his attempt of countering that.”

“I agree with the rest of the OBO community that the shot was a daft one considering the situation. Perhaps a bigger sign of his current batting malaise is his struggle to play what the situation requires rather than his expansive shot selection.

“Thanks for keeping me company while I question my choices of waking up to see England put themselves under the cosh.”

Will Juba: “Interesting to see the reaction of the OBOers…I absolutely understand the frustration at Root’s shot and agree, he doesn’t quite seem to have found his natural place in this Stokes and Baz England set up (though his average is still fantastic and he’s scored some unbelievable tons so it’s not that bad!).

”However, only England fans could go from the giddy high of yesterday to the depressing low of today! Poor shot yes; but 2 wickets have gone in the first half hour on all three days. Is the way Root got out different to if he’d been caught in the slips? I know the argument is if he sat in, it gets easier and then he goes big. But I do understand the ‘it’s how we play argument’ and am not sure how you can have one (the quite staggering attacking batting) and not the other (the strange dismissals). To just leap between the mindsets and go traditional-attacking-traditional-attacking surely isn’t that easy and we fit the narrative to the result. If that shot comes off then we’d all be waxing lyrical about it.

”That said, bad shot wasn’t it?!”