Before the start of Day 5, James Anderson had hoped for the ball to reverse soon. And indeed, it did, and Anderson ran through the Indian top-order to steer England close to a memorable win in the Chennai Test.
"The wicket is so abrasive that our second new ball in India's first innings reversed after four overs," Anderson told home broadcasters Star Sports. "We're not far away from reverse (in 2nd innings). The harder the ball is when it is reversing, will be more beneficial to us seamers. So hopefully, we can work well in tandem with the spinners."
England started with spinners Jack Leach and Dom Bess up-front on Day 5, but the Indian batsmen (Shubman Gill in particular) had arrived at the crease with intent. He smashed a four on the second ball of the day, and the duo accumulated 9 runs in the first over.
More runs followed as India scored at an increased pace. It seemed the Indian team wanted to repeat the heroics at Gabba. James Anderson was quietly watching the proceedings, waiting for his turn.
He finally arrived in the 13th over of the match, and wreaked havoc on India within six deliveries. It was evident from the very first delivery that Anderson was generating movement on the wicket. After the first ball drifted slightly away from Gill, Anderson induced a sharp reverse-swing on the second delivery, and Gill was simply too late in closing the gap between pad and gap, as the ball uprooted the off-stump.
A delivery later, Anderson almost secured another wicket for England but Ajinkya Rahane survived the LBW appeal through umpire's call. Taking a reasonably big stride outside off, Rahane failed to read the reverse-swing, but the impact remained marginally outside off-stump. However, the long stride didn't save Rahane in the next delivery.
On second successive occasion, Rahane played the wrong line, gifting his wicket away to the 38-year-old England pacer. The off-stump was sent cart-wheeling as Rahane was left clueless.
He later dismissed the dangerous Rishabh Pant (11), having him caught by skipper Joe Root at short cover after the Indian attempted a clip to the on-side resulting in a leading edge. This time, Anderson came around the wicket with an off-cutter.
Watch the wickets of Gill and Pujara here:
England require four wickets to win the Chennai Test and take 1-0 lead in the four-match series. The second Test begins on February 13 at the same venue.
