Key events
37th over: India 171-1 (Rohit 72, Gill 38) Oh dear. Rohit goes to turn the ball round the corner off Bashir and the ball flies – at rapid though catchable height – but Crawley at leg slip doesn’t see it in time and it flies through the paws of Crawley and down to the boundary.
36th over: India 166-1 (Rohit 68, Gill 37) Better from Anderson, and as I write that Rohit glides four from an open face.
35th over: India 162-1 (Rohit 64, Gill 37) An over of calm from Bashir. The stadium DJ is now going for restful Hindi (?) tunes. Imagine swirling saris by waterfalls. If you’re there, please write in and tell us how gorgeously, gorgeous it is.
Good morning Andrew Crossley. “9pm in Colorado. Dog snoozing on sofa. Just finished an episode of “One Day” with American wife and daughter, then turn to the cricket. I can’t suppress an instinctive “oh Jimmy Jimmy”, and it’s followed immediately by a chorus of the appropriate “Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy Anderson” in American accents (not the dog)
”So proud!” (You should be)
”Three of us hoping to see Jimmy make history.” Me too, though he won’t be happy after that treatment by Gill. And, by the way, I loved One Day – the series more than the book.
34th over: India 161-1 (Rohit 63, Gill 37) Just a casual step-dance, a perpendicular elbow and Gill has hit a straight six off Anderson. A couple of balls later, he cuts, ferociously, for four more. Four more follows off the pad. The deficit is down to 57. Already.
33rd over: India 147-1 (Rohit 63, Gill 27) Rohit launches Bashir for six over mid on and four over long off. He over pitches slightly and the second lands wide of off stump, but still, that was unnecessary at this time in the morning. Bashir puts his hands on his head.
32nd over: India 137-1 (Rohit 53, Gill 27) Jimmy Anderson, hungry for those two wickets, yellow-orange quiff, runs in towards the mammoth mountains. On the television they flick up a graph of his average speeds sice 2015 – pretty much unchanged year on year. A single or two.
Morning session
31st over: India 135-1 (Rohit 52, Gill 26) Trumpets and Jerusalem accompany Bashir’s first over – a maiden.
Just had a look at the scorecard at Christchurch. New Zealand having an England day at the office – and some. All out for 162, with Kane Williamson, also in his 100th Test, also unable to capitalise on the occasion. Catch up here :
And the players are out in the middle at Dharmasala, with Jimmy Anderson needing just two wickets for the magic 700.
The dog still loves me, and I have tea. I come back to Cooky and Finny talking about Rohit’s languid charm, and how we haven’t seen his best in Test cricket yet (good luck England). Finn says that England had “a passive day yesterday” which is a cute observation. Then they move onto Yadav: “One of the most improved bowlers I’ve seen,” says Cook. “He’s straightened up his run-up, he bowls quicker, he tucks his right arm in more, spins the ball hard and his control yesterday was fabulous.”
Graeme Swann is standing in the middle of the pitch, the sun it out, the air is clear and all is well and beautiful. He knocks the pitch – tap, tap -hard as teak. Runs, he says, to be had. Time to grab a quick cup of tea, back very soon.
Preamble
Good morning! Day one was something nasty in the woodshed – England done over by Kuldeep Yadav and friends, and then blasted away by Rohit and Jasiwal as the sun dropped gracefully in beautiful Dharamsala, the snowy peaks of the Himalayas adding drama to the mid-afternoon collapse.
That loss of five for eight in just 36 balls is going to take some coming back from – but really the attention should fall on India, whose bowling was magnificent: from the swinging early morning gems of Bumrah and Siraj to Yadav’s ball of brilliance to dismiss Zac Crawley. They resume this morning with a deficit of just 83 runs. I’ll be there, do join me to chew the fat with the blackbirds.
