India v England: second Test, day two – live

Elsewhere…

An early email from Michael Meagher:

“Mood music from England is good but… WinViz has India at 90%”

With that, he’s gone. Like a Keyser Söze of the OBO mailbag.

I’m cranking into action too, slowly. I knew I shouldn’t have stayed for that final pint… eeejit. A vat of the inevitable bean based liquid is brewing and should sort me out. Do get in touch on the emails or social meedja’s and we can take this first session down together. Please?

The TV coverage cranks into action. SirAlastair Cook and Steve Finn both reckon it was England’s day yesterday and that is a crucial day coming up in the context of the series.

Here’s the magnificent Tanya Aldred on Woking’s finest and the Rohit snaring Shoaib Bashir:

Shoaib Bashir, was making his Test debut. Bashir is just 20, with only six first-class games and 10 first-class wickets under his belt. As tall as the office blocks sprouting all over his home town of Woking, he has fingers that curve over and around a cricket ball, shrinking it to dried cranberry proportions. Shirt loose in the Bazball way, he reacted to Stokes throwing him the ball in the 12th over with astonishing calm, after England lost the toss on a flat wicket.

All easy action, he rattled through a first accurate over, conceding only a single, and 2.3 overs later had his first Test wicket, when Rohit Sharma angled his bat and the ball plopped into Ollie Pope’s hands at leg slip, with Bashir watching its arc the whole way. Bashir pumped his long arms in glee before being smothered by his loving new teammates.

Hello and welcome to the day two OBO of India v England in Visakhapatnam. It is very early here in a treacle skied south London. Let’s catch up on the state of the game after day one and go gently into what promises to be another good/crucial/intriguing/ night.

In short – India won the toss and chose to bat first on a featherbed. They finished the day on 336-6 with 22 year old opener Yashasvi Jaiswal carrying his bat for 179*. And yet - England would have probably been the happier side after picking up six wickets and giving themselves the chance of bowling India out for a first innings score of around 400 or so. Did I mention it is flat?