Ahmedabad has suffered a steep drop recently in the number of vultures circling the city, but those not affected by urbanisation and poisoning will find plenty to encourage them as long as England’s malady against spin bowling persists.
India took England’s last seven first-innings wickets by tea, with their spinners R Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha hunting down eight wickets in the innings, and as the follow-on was confirmed, a lone vulture loomed overhead as if in expectation of a quick kill. England sorely needed a remedy second time around that might not save the Test but would pronounce themselves still redoubtable opponents in the three Tests to follow. Alastair Cook and Nick Compton provided it with a contemplative, unbroken stand of 111 as the spinners failed to find the same purchase second time around. India still lead by 219 runs with two days remaining, but here at last was an England batting pair, neither of them natural players of spin, working earnestly to come up with their own individual solutions. Cook was a captain leading by example, the more expansive as he picked off the bad balls; Compton, although more cautious, showed impressive resolve on debut. Ojha came close to dismissing both, having Compton dropped in the gully on 23 by Virat Kohli, a tough chance by his boots, and seeing Aleem Dar refuse a convincing lbw appeal when Cook was 37. The BCCI will not accept DRS until it is 100 per cent efficient. Instead they got Dar, a fine umpire having a bad day, operating at a percentage he will wish to remain unrecorded.
England have no problems with spin. Psychologically, they have to say that. The evidence, though, remained contrary in their first innings as Ashwin and Ojha, taking four wickets on an exacting morning, became the latest combination to harry them to destruction in Asia. Ojha, looping up his left-arm slows at a gentle pace, bowled Kevin Pietersen and had Ian Bell caught in the deep first ball – one of the most misconceived dismissals by an England batsman since Mike Gatting had a dabble at the reverse sweep in the 1987 World Cup final. Ashwin accounted for Cook, whose accession to the England Test captaincy has come at a most unpromising juncture. Cook’s methodical resistance took him to 41 before Ashwin caused him to reach for one that turned and edge to Sehwag at first slip.