England assistant coach Paul Farbrace has said that a couple of wickets towards the end of the day has lifted the mood of his players. After dominating the first two days of the opening Test with the bat, the English players had to toil hard on the field on the third day as Indian batsmen made full use of the ideal batting condition in Rajkot.
The visitors started the third day brightly by dismissing Gautam Gambhir in only the second over of the day but then a 209 runs partnership between Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay ended their hopes of taking a firm grip on the match. After Pujara’s dismissal, India was still looking comfortable but then the visitors dismissed Vijay and Amit Mishra to get something to cheer about from the tough day. Farbrace said that although the late wickets have not given his team an edge but it has given the visitors a lift.
Speaking to the media after the end of day’s play, Farbrace said:“I wouldn’t say it has given us an edge, it’s given us a lift in our dressing room. When you go (through) the day with two wickets, to get two at the end is a real bonus. I think credit goes to our perseverance and a very disciplined way of bowling all day.”
In reply to England’s first innings total of 537, India finished the day on 319 for 4. Pujara and Vijay dominated the whole day but Farbrace praised his bowlers for their efforts.
“We bowled to two outstanding batsmen in good conditions, a very good cricket pitch. But to be able to pick up two wickets at the end certainly has given our dressing room a huge lift tonight,” Farbrace said.
“It’s still an awful long way to go but it’s nice when you talk about being patient, sticking to your plans and then you get rewarded at the end of the day. That’s exactly what has happened to us today.
“Today we stuck to a very disciplined way of bowling, our seamers have done a fantastic job in difficult conditions. We are also really pleased with the way our spinners have bowled. They took a bit of stick in Bangladesh for perhaps not holding their line and length but I thought today they particularly bowled very well. No doubt they had a really good day today.”
Commenting on England’s approach of drying up the runs for the Indian batsmen, Farbrace said:“Today we talked a lot about making sure they don’t get to score too easily. I think (Ben) Stokes had a little spell just before lunch when he chased it a little bit, didn’t necessarily mean to. But the danger is when you go looking for wickets you get a bit strayed.”
“We saw that both of them (Pujara and Vijay) are fantastic off their pads and anything that you bowled on the stumps was quite easy to score against. So our plan today was literally to stay outside off stump, make it difficult for them to score, score on one side of the pitch and set a field for it. We got our reward at the end of the day for being patient,” Farbrace added.
Commenting on the nature of the pitch, he said:“They are still 200 runs behind but it’s still an excellent pitch. It’s typical in these parts of the world where you get very good cricket pitch. But then things start to happen around tea time on day four and things happen quickly.
“Both sides were expecting the wicket to turn more, the cracks have certainly opened over the last three days and some of them have started to crack on the edge. You might start to see a little bit more variable bounce as well. When you are 200 runs in front you hope that happens. That’s why it’s important to get your runs in the first innings,” he concluded.