- Updates from day four at the MA Chidambaram Stadium
- Rahul’s epic knock for India makes victory for England a tall order
- Full scorecard from Chennai
- Email tim.delisle.casual@theguardian.com. Tweet @TimdeLisle
135th over: India 463-5 (Nair 122, Ashwin 9) Cook wakes up with a jolt and gives Stokes a breather at last. He may regret it, as Adil Rashid comes on and Nair helps himself to four with an off-drive. That’s lunch. It’s India’s morning, but Cook, somnolent or not, has kept things under control: only 72 runs in the session, 51 of them to Nair, who has been cool, calm and collected.
134th over: India 457-5 (Nair 117, Ashwin 8) Ashwin finally finds his feet, in style, late-cutting Dawson for four. That’s Ashwin’s first boundary, off his 35th ball.
133rd over: India 453-5 (Nair 117, Ashwin 4) Sturdy stuff from Stokes. He too has bowled a long spell, for figures of 8-1-26-0 which could easily have been 8-2-20-2. Cook has gone to sleep. So has the game. How about you, dear reader?
132nd over: India 452-5 (Nair 117, Ashwin 3) Almost a maiden from Dawson, who is damned if he’s going to get a hundred here: he has 1-99 off 35 overs, and 1-5 off the last five of those.
131st over: India 451-5 (Nair 117, Ashwin 2) Nair chops Stokes for a single and the 450 comes up. As milestones go, it’s both admirable and boring, like a 45th wedding anniversary.
130th over: India 449-5 (Nair 116, Ashwin 1) Ashwin under-edges Dawson, and the ball goes into the ground and up into the region known to generations of commentators as Amidships. Usually so assured, Ashwin has been scratchy today.
129th over: India 447-5 (Nair 115, Ashwin 0) Stokes keeps Nair quiet with a maiden. He never stops trying.
128th over: India 447-5 (Nair 115, Ashwin 0) Dawson continues his marathon spell. Rashid and Moeen may be wondering why they got out of bed today. But there’s method in Cook’s madness, as Dawson is bowling well. He gets one past Ashwin’s bat, a bit of a grubber, which doesn’t bode well for England.
127th over: India 446-5 (Nair 114, Ashwin 0) Stokes summons up a snorter to take the shoulder of Nair’s bat – literally, as a chunk of willow comes off. He hands it to the umpire, insouciantly, and bats on, and celebrates his escape with a crunching square drive for four. Stokes then replies by beating the battered bat. A good little duel: we needed that.
126th over: India 437-5 (Nair 105, Ashwin 0) Dawson looks happy to bowl all day, which is lucky as that is what Cook seems to have in mind for him. This spell has been 9-1-23-1.
125th over: India 436-5 (Nair 104, Ashwin 0) Steady from Stokes, and then sharpish as he raps Ashwin on his right hand.
An interesting tweet lands from Dominic Sayers. Our neat tweet mode isn’t working, so I’ll try it as a link...
124th over: India 435-5 (Nair 103, Ashwin 0) Thats a wicket maiden. Well bowled Dawson, or Dawss, as he has become in Jonny Bairstow’s unstoppable commentary from behind the stumps. Shouldn’t Jos Buttler be getting a go with the gloves?
Vijay has gone, pinned on the back pad by a flatter ball, and Liam Dawson has that first Test wicket. Just deserts all round. India are 435-5.
Dawson gets an LBW given by umpire Erasmus, but Vijay reviews. He might as well...
123rd over: India 435-4 (Nair 103, Vijay 29) Stokes did well there to produce the five dots, but Nair rose to the challenge.
Karun Nair has done it! Stokes and Cook stifle him with a 7-2 field, he sets off for several aborted singles, but then there’s a full one and he squirt-drives it for four to wide third man. He goes to 103 out of 435 – a first Test hundred, richly deserved.
122nd over: India 431-4 (Nair 99, Vijay 29) Nair pulls Dawson for a single to the sweeper, and kicks himself for not finding the gap. Dawson’s own century is looming (30-3-94-0), but he has bowled better than that.
“And so to bed,” says Brian Withington, alarmingly. “I think Ian Copestake had the right idea – best to save oneself for a stupendous day five denouement. Trust that you will be serving up the OBO honours tomorrow as a reward for putting in the hard yards this morning.” Interesting definition of reward there.
121st over: India 430-4 (Nair 98, Vijay 29) Nair takes another single, Stokes gets some nice reverse away from the bat, but Vijay watches the ball carefully and cashes in with a square drive for four. That’s drinks, and the first hour, like so many in this series, belongs to India.
120th over: India 425-4 (Nair 97, Vijay 25) Vijay takes a single to bring up the fifty partnership. Nair plays that paddle-swat of his again, hoping for four, settling for one as Cook dives to his right at short super-fine leg. Then another single apiece as Nair stays nerveless.
119th over: India 421-4 (Nair 95, Vijay 23) Nair picks up a couple more, driving a wide one from Stokes, who, like Broad earlier, seems a little creaky. Nasser feels Stokes has been under-bowled, and reckons England are “wrapping him up in what is now a dead rubber”. The mind boggles.
118th over: India 417-4 (Nair 92, Vijay 22) Nair stays busy against Dawson, cutting for two off middle stump, and shovelling to leg for a two and a single, but he also swats at one coming out of the rough, which Nasser sees as a sign of nerves. Bowling change approaching: Stokes for Broad.
117th over: India 412-4 (Nair 87, Vijay 22) Broad continues, muttering, and each batsman takes a single. Paging Ian Copestake: have you gone back to bed? If so, I can’t say I blame you.
116th over: India 410-4 (Nair 86, Vijay 21) Dawson seems to be on top, when Nair suddenly launches himself down the wicket and clumps him for six. It’s Nair’s first six for India, and a hint that the nineties will not be nervous.
Brian Withington is back. “Doesn’t this umpire know that it’s the done thing to err in favour of the side without a review left when the other team has two spare?! Especially with a snick behind where there is no LBW margin of error bias to worry about.” It’s a fair cop.
115th over: India 404-4 (Nair 80, Vijay 21) Big appeal, more of a celebration from Broad, as Vijay drives loosely and gets a thin edge – but umpire Fry isn’t interested and England have no reviews left. “They used their reviews last night,” Nasser Hussain notes, “in that crazy ten minutes.” He sounds like your favourite teacher when he’s disappointed with you.
114th over: India 404-4 (Nair 80, Vijay 21) A good piece of cricket as Nair belts Dawson straight, Dawson stops it well and tries to run him out at the striker’s end. Nair then scrapes a single, and Vijay adds another. Dawson, England’s sixth spinner in this series, has started well today.
113th over: India 402-4 (Nair 79, Vijay 20) Broad keeps Vijay quiet, and honest. A maiden, and the last ball flew off a length to give Bairstow some goalkeeping practice down the leg side. Whisper it, but there may be signs of life in the pitch.
112th over: India 402-4 (Nair 79, Vijay 20) Vijay pushes for two through midwicket, then edges a single. So India pass 400 yet again. Meanwhile, in Brisbane, “... and then sadly the tenth!” writes Brian Withington. “At least we can now focus all our energies on your exemplary OBO coverage of this riveting test match (especially as present wrapping was concluded on Friday during day one coverage).” It seems a bit early for compliments, but thank you, Brian.
111th over: India 399-4 (Nair 79, Vijay 17) Another delay for some gardening, with Broad apparently directing the groundsmen. And then a lively over, which would have been a maiden had Nair’s attempted leave not gone for four through the slips. Pakistan, alas, have lost their ninth wicket. “As exciting as it sounds at the Gabba,” tweets Ali Martin, “here in Chennai we’ve just had two overs bowled in the first 15 minutes.”
110th over: India 395-4 (Nair 75, Vijay 17) Liam Dawson is the first spinner of the day, and he bowls the first ripper, finding turn and bounce to beat Vijay’s back-foot defence. And then one keeps low, to whet Dawson’s appetite further. Ian Copestake has even spotted that my email address was mis-typed above (“too many dots”). Very Guardian. Thanks, Ian.
109th over: India 394-4 (Nair 74, Vijay 17) Stuart Broad opens the proceedings, rather as the Duke off Edinburgh might: he looks distinguished but creaky. Whether he throws in a risqué quip too, the stump microphone doesn’t relate. Karun Nair helps himself to a couple first ball, with a push through mid-on, and adds a single after a delay caused by ropey footholds. England’s fans fill an empty stadium with the sound of Jerusalem. That’s quite creaky too.
“Morning, Tim,” says Ian Copestake, who rises as steadily as the sun, in fact before it. “If it was tough getting up for this game, I hope the gift of Pakistan’s fightback has made it all worthwhile.” That is quite a story: they need 50 with two wickets left. Follow it here, if you decide it’s more gripping than India v England: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2016/dec/19/australia-v-pakistan-first-test-day-five-live
The rubber is dead. The pitch is dead. The match is half-dead. But the hills are alive with the sound of OBO. Nobody said a sporting encounter had to be exciting in order to be covered here. There are many moods of Test cricket, and one of them is barely there at all. It can make for a nice blank canvas.
England, let’s face it, know how to grab defeat from the jaws of inertia. They managed it after making 400 in Mumbai, and they could just about do it again in Chennai after making 477. If India can turn 391-4 into another total that begins with a 6, it’ll be game on. And there’s always our old friend, the individual sub-plot.
Tim will be here soon.
Related: KL Rahul’s epic knock for India makes victory for England a tall order
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