Ishant's rewards for the dirty work

Ishant Sharma is an odd sort of 'attack leader', averaging over 37 in Test cricket and not given the new ball, but extracting England's middle order on a docile pitch showed why he is persisted with

Agarkar: Bhuvneshwar swung the ball consistently

Taking the third question in his press conference, Ishant Sharma stropped mid-answer and nearly let out a shriek. "I'm sorry, I'm cramping," he said. A Test player cramping in a press conference. In enough discomfort to stop answering a question. It was an endearing moment. It was also one thing that we can be absolutely sure about with Ishant. He goes out on the field, and leaves everything there.

The cramping immediately took you back to the 59th over of the innings. Ishant was in the middle of an intense spell, and fielding at long leg. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was bowling at the other end, and as had been the case until then with Mohammed Shami and him, was releasing the pressure.

The second ball had been short and cut away for four, the fourth was too full and on the pads. Ian Bell clipped it through midwicket, but Ishant - who had already bowled five overs in that spell and would bowl two more - gave the chase his all, and nearly made it. He even put in a dive, but could not prevent the boundary. Had he not gone hard at this ball, he would have been excused, but that would not be Ishant. With the bat, with the ball, in the field, Ishant is the ultimate team man, ready to, as Dhoni demanded of his players back in 2007, run through a wall.

That, though, does not, and should not, sum Ishant up. He has a beautiful run-up yet often his wrist is not behind the ball. He can go months without looking threatening yet takes wickets in a bunch. He has ordinary statistics yet is persisted with by the team, for which he gets a lot of ridicule from the Indian fans; both "unlucky" and "lucky" are adjectives used in a pejorative sense for Ishant. He has all the physical attributes of a good fast bowler - he is tall, he is strong, he is fit and hardly gets injured - yet somehow it has never come together for a consistent period of time.

Popular assessment - and it could be wrong - is that Ishant is the least smart of Indian quicks yet the most experienced. A nicer way to say that is, he does not overthink. That sometimes is an asset for an Indian fast bowler. You have to bowl a lot of dirty overs or dirty pitches at dirty times. If you overthink, pitches will demoralise you. Every bowler has at some point tried to not bowl a certain kind of overs. Ishant, though, does not. This is different from being an "honest trier".

No one will argue against Ishant's stats, but part of why he is persisted with is because he does not complain about those dirty overs. He was India's best bowler in New Zealand yet did not get the new ball here. The leader of the attack, as Zaheer Khan wanted him to be, coming in when India had tried the plan A, and seen it fail. Ishant was introduced at a time he has become used to: when nothing was working for India.

India knew they were not going to burst through England on this pitch, they had to bowl dry and wait for mistakes. India did manage those dry periods in the first hour - seven runs off the first 38 balls - but they were releasing the pressure. Following those 38 balls, Shami was picked away for fours square on both the on and off sides in one over. Shami actually kept bowling too straight. It was getting dirty on a dirty pitch, and India called on "the leader of the attack".

"I didn't think about all these things," Ishant said when asked if Zaheer's expectations made any difference. "It's just that I have played some more matches than the others. But we are all in the same age group. I am not the kind of person who really shows it to the team that I am the leader of the fast bowling attack. Obviously, when I am on the field, I share my experience that I have gathered through all the Test matches, and it helps me and them."

The difference showed in the bowling, though. There were few soft leaves, only 22 in 22 overs, which is a remarkable stat and vital on this pitch. You either bowl dry and consistently wide outside off to a seven-two field, which reduces your chances of getting wickets, or go at the batsman without straying too straight. Ishant chose the latter. He hit the pitch hard, which exploited whatever uneven bounce there was to be exploited, and crucially bowled fuller than usual.

"I have played enough matches to understand the length to bowl on different surfaces," Ishant said of the adjustment he made. "Sometimes it will get reverse, so it's about knowing the surface and the batsman you are bowling at to get the right length."

Another significant aspect of his bowling was the use of the short ball. Liam Plunkett bowled a lot of them, the other England quicks hardly did. Ishant, though, used it but sparingly. It surprised the batsmen, and this pitch was hardly the kind where you can take your eyes off and duck. Sam Robson was hit on the glove when fending, Moeen Ali when ducking. Moeen was caught off that short ball, Robson later fell to a fuller ball.

Ishant had the intensity and the variation to once again go through those dirty overs. Usually he goes for runs at such times, and his stats get worse. Today on a pitch that suits him, he got the wickets that triggered a collapse, and can still give India a big lead. Listening to him you know it did not happen by accident. As usual, though, the question remains where Ishant goes from here. You can rest assured, though, that he will not be bothered about the cramps.

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Blake, Tredwell keep Kent alive

Kent 149 for 9 (Blake 53, Beer 3-18) beat Sussex 146 for 9 (Jordan 37, Harmison 3-35) by three runs
Scorecard

Disappointment can often be a good motivator and in a week when he lost his Test spot, Chris Jordan almost managed to haul Sussex across the line in the T20 Blast. If truth be told, it was a bitty showing from Jordan and embodied a slapdash performance from Sussex as their faint hopes of T20 Blast progression ended.

If Jordan had hoped for a competent homecoming on the back of his England omission, Kent were in no mood to bestow him handouts. The name on the back of the shirt counts for little on the county circuit and although his 37 brought Sussex to within a blow of victory, a couple of overzealous overs proved decisive and irreparable.

Straying onto the leg side more often or not, he was picked off with ease and when he returned in the 17th over of Kent's stodgy innings, the subsequent six deliveries changed the dynamic of the game.

His additional zip gave Ben Brown, the Sussex wicketkeeper, little chance with a steep bouncer that proved too quick for anyone and then Alex Blake tucked into successive sixes, who scored an unbeaten fifty, one of which came off a no-ball to lift Kent towards a target that had looked improbable when they slouched to 77 for 6; 38 came off Jordan's three overs.

In the end, their 149 for 9 was just enough despite Jordan's late hitting. Requiring 17 off the final over, a towering blow over long-off kept the Hove crowd on the edge of their seats before he could only pick out the fielder with a couple of deliveries remaining. His, and indeed Sussex's, race was run.

Kent, however, still harbour hopes of progression. Having gone six games without a victory in the South Group, few would have given them a sniff as they toiled on a slow surface. Will Beer, predominately deployed in the shortest-format, wreaked havoc with a competent display of leg spin as the top-order subsided with little fight, Daniel Bell Drummond - who underpinned the Powerplay overs with 34 - apart.

Fabian Cowdrey missed a straight one from Beer before Stefan Piolet took all the pace off to outwit Darren Stevens next over. That only provided the platform for Blake. A well-organised left-hander, he batted without any inhibitions on a track that required a clear mind and convincing strokes. He struck five sixes, including the two off Jordan that gave Kent the impetus, to give his bowlers something to defend. Beer, who finished with career best figures of 3 for 18, was unable to put his feet up.

Much like Kent's batting order, the hosts flopped in the face of the battery of slower bowlers Rob Key had little hesitation in deploying. Such are the idiosyncrasies of the loan system that James Tredwell, who was in the home dressing room during the week, played a major part in foiling his part-time team-mates.

He nonchalantly had Yasir Arafat caught and bowled, just as the game threatened to swing back in Sussex's favour, before cold water was poured over Jordan's fireworks.

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Lack of leaders a hurdle to England revival

In a batting order containing four or five relatively inexperienced cricketers, it is not obvious who in the dressing room can revitalise England

Root steadies England with unbeaten 78

If you were the sort of driver who kept colliding with bollards, the sort of sailor who kept hitting rocks and the sort of pilot who kept crash landing, you might conclude, eventually, that you are not very good at driving, sailing or flying.

A similar conclusion might be sinking into the seasick sailors of English cricket. Beaten like a snare drum, by Australia, Sri Lanka and Netherlands among others, the England team would be better served acknowledging their failings than hiding behind poor fortune. Only fools and losers continually bemoan luck as the cause of their failings.

Yes, at least one England player was the victim of an umpiring error. But so was at least one India player. And Murali Vijay looked in better form than Matt Prior. And yes, a ball change at the end of the 54th over did appear to precipitate England's collapse, though a mildly reverse-swinging ball at this pace should hardly have caused this level of bother.

Instead, England should reflect that, if they play across straight deliveries (Alastair Cook), if they poke at wide deliveries (Ian Bell), if they lose balance at the crease (Gary Ballance), if they play back when they should be forward (Sam Robson), they are not the victims of bad luck. They are guilty of poor batting.

This is hardly the first batting collapse they have experienced in recent times. Indeed, the 6 for 68 they suffered here on a slow pitch and against a modest attack, compares well against the 5 for 18 they suffered in the previous Test at Headingley, the 5 for 23 and 4 for 8 they suffered in Sydney, the 6 for 53 and 5 for 6 they suffered in Melbourne, the 6 for 24 in Adelaide, the 8 for 54 and 7 for 49 in Brisbane or the 6 for 37 here last year. If something keeps happening it is not an aberration; it is a problem.

They might also reflect on what sort of surfaces they do like. Because, in recent times, they have struggled on pitches offering spin, struggled on pitches offering bounce, struggled on pitches where the balls skids, struggled on pitches where the balls swings and struggled on pitches like this where the ball does very little of anything. Until Test cricket is played on ice, they are going to have to learn to manage a bit better on at least some of those surfaces.

The sight of James Anderson reverse-sweeping boundaries and Stuart Broad driving on the up through the covers just underlined how poorly England's middle-order played. There is nothing to fear in this slow, low surface and, decently though India bowled in the circumstances, little to fear against an attack that, by the standards of Test cricket, remains modest. Batting at this level will rarely be this comfortable and this England side contains a record nine men with Test centuries to their name.

One of England's enduring problems is that the majority of their players do just enough to justify their continued selection. But "just enough" does not win Tests and England require more from Bell and Co if they are to end their current malaise. Nobody doubts Bell's ability and his place is, quite rightly, secure. But, five Test innings into the new era, he is averaging 32.40 and struggling to provide the leadership and inspiration his side requires.

It may be that leadership and inspiration are the key missing ingredients in this England side. For as this malaise continues - and, barring a miracle, they will have extended their winless run to nine Tests by Sunday night - so the belief is draining from this England team. With Anderson and Broad seemingly resigned to endless spells on dead wickets, Cook and Prior currently struggling to lead from example and a batting order containing four or five relatively inexperienced cricketers, it is not obvious who in the dressing room can lead the revival.

English cricket is bursting with men who never offend, or shock or rock the boat. Men who have paid their dues and do not disrupt the dressing rooms or committee rooms to which they serve. Men who will disappear without leaving much of a trace.

But sometimes you need characters who ruffle and question and offend. Sometimes you need characters who have the arrogance and aggression to change what appears an inevitable course. Sometimes you need the sort of player a mild-mannered former England captain might describe as "an absolute c***".

There may be knock-on effects to England's shortened innings. By forcing Anderson and Co into the field once again so soon after their draining first innings efforts, they sustain a vicious circle that could compromise England's efforts throughout the series. Still jaded by their first innings efforts, they are likely to be less effective - the harsh might say even less effective - the second time around. And with only three days between Tests, they may still be feeling the effects by the time the match at Lord's starts.

It was the same story in Australia. Though England fairly often claimed the first four or five wickets relatively cheaply, Australia invariably recovered through Brad Haddin as Anderson and Broad tired. Until the batsmen support the bowlers better, it will continue to happen.

In normal circumstances, England should still be able to hang on for a draw. The pitch will hardly deteriorate; it will just become ever more funereal in pace. And, had it not been for the Indian tenth-wicket stand, England would already have a lead. Even more pertinently, MS Dhoni may have a tricky decision to make regarding a declaration.

But normal circumstances no longer apply. England's batting collapses have occurred too often to retain even a hint of complacency.

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Narine steals show for Guyana in win

Guyana Amazon Warriors 140 for 8 (Ramdin 51, Cottrell 3-24) beat Antigua Hawksbills 136 for 8 (Dunk 38, Neesham 3-33, Narine 0-3) by two wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

The Guyana Amazon Warriors laid forth their intentions to get back to the Caribbean Premier League final with a two-wicket win over Antigua Hawksbills on Friday afternoon in the opening match of the Caribbean Premier League 2014 in Grenada. The slim final margin belied the true disparity between the sides after Sunil Narine's near flawless bowling spell meant last year's CPL runners-up faced a modest target of 137. Guyana lost three wickets for two runs in six balls late in the chase but eventually eased across the line with three balls to spare.

Guyana captain Denesh Ramdin was named Man of the Match for his 51 off 36 balls, but Narine was arguably the standout performer on the day. He returned sensational figures of 4-1-3-0 to tie a record for the fewest runs conceded in a four-over T20 spell. The mark is shared by two others including Shoaib Malik for Barbados Tridents in CPL 2013, also made against Antigua.

Ramdin won the toss and put Antigua in to bat. Australian import Ben Dunk got the side off to an impressive start, targeting the spin of Mohammed Hafeez for two fours and a six in the fourth over to move to 33 for 0. At that stage, Dunk was on 32 and his partner Shacaya Thomas was anchored on 1. In what would be a recurring theme on the day, Narine appeared in the following over and choked off the runs.

Dunk tried to attack Ronsford Beaton in the sixth over and paid for it by chipping a top edge to Hafeez at midwicket for 38. Thomas' struggles against spin ended for 20 in the 14th over after a top-edged sweep against Veerasammy Permaul was taken by Hafeez at fine leg. Narine increased the pressure, conceding one run in the 15th, and even though the score was a healthy 103 for 2, with five overs remaining, the desperation for runs was manifested in the first of three run-outs. Off the first ball of the 16th, Danza Hyatt took off prematurely from the non-striker's end only to see Krishmar Santokie field off his own bowling and hit the stumps.

In the next over, Marlon Samuels chose to run for a tight single past silly point but Ramdin scurried from behind the stumps and fired another direct hit at the bowler's end. Following David Hussey's dismissal at the hands of Jimmy Neesham for 10 in the 18th, Devon Thomas attempted to resuscitate the Antigua innings with a big six over long-on in the 19th but was fortunate to survive two balls later when he miscued the same shot and Martin Guptill wound up parrying the ball over the rope for four.

Sheldon Cottrell tried to finish with a flourish for Antigua by flicking over midwicket for a boundary to start the 20th but a wild charge on the third ball resulted in a run-out after some indecision on whether or not to steal a bye. Neesham followed that with the wickets of Carlos Brathwaite and Justin Athanaze off the next two deliveries and a superb final pver kept the score to 136 for 8.

Guyana's chase got off to a rocky start in the first two overs with the loss of their openers. Lendl Simmons was bowled by a Cottrell inswinger for a duck and was followed by Guptill in the next over. The experience of Hafeez and Ramdin came through with a 59-run third-wicket stand before Hafeez fell off the final ball of the 10th, trying to slog the off spin of Samuels out of the ground only to sky a chance over the pitch that was claimed by the keeper.

Ramdin accelerated towards his fifty by stroking four boundaries off the next three overs to bring the equation down closer to a run a ball. Neesham holed out to long-on for 11 to give Cottrell his second but Guyana were still in control needing 28 off the last five overs with six wickets in hand. Ramdin brought up his half-century off 34 balls with a single to start the 16th before Guyana stumbled with victory in sight.

Christopher Barnwell checked a cut shot and spooned a simple catch to Hyatt at point for Ben Laughlin's first wicket. Laughlin and Hyatt teamed up again four balls later to remove Navin Stewart. Antigua would have started to believe the match might just be theirs when Ramdin was bowled by Brathwaite off the first ball of the 17th over, leaving the tail to score 25 off 23 deliveries.

Permaul got just enough of a Laughlin slower ball in the 18th to clear the rope at long-on for six, after which a four squirted through point deflated Antigua. Permaul fell with seven balls remaining, hooking Cottrell to long-leg, but the dismissal came after he had done damage. After his exploits with the ball earlier in the day, Narine fittingly clinched the win with a thumping drive back down the ground for a four in the 20th.

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Cook's dismissal betrays frazzled mind

Some may say that the England captain's dismissal was unlucky, but it was the latest example of the demons he is battling as the form slump grows longer

Chappell: In trying to cover one weakness, Cook has created others

It was days like this that persuaded Edvard Munch to paint The Scream, Thomas Hardy to write Jude The Obscure and Leonard Cohen to pick up a guitar. And it has been days like this that have persuaded many captains that the time has come to step down.

This was a day during which the pressure upon Alastair Cook mounted. It mounted when Matt Prior put down a chance to dismiss MS Dhoni before he had added to his overnight total. It mounted when Moeen Ali was unable to fill the role of controlling spinner. And it mounted when he saw his champion fast bowler, James Anderson, thrashed for six back over his head by a tailender who started the match with a Test average of 3.33 amid an agonising tenth-wicket partnership that left England exhausted, embarrassed and exposed.

But it culminated in Cook's own dismissal. Finally given the opportunity to make use of a pitch holding few alarms, Cook not just failed to take advantage, not just failed to mount the defence his side required, but betrayed the extent to which his own personal game has sunk.

On a wicket on which India's tenth-wicket pair had prospered simply by playing forward and straight, Cook paid the penalty for playing back and across. Instead of playing a straight ball back towards the bowler, he attempted to nudge it into the leg side and, lacking balance and a sense of where his stumps were, was bowled round his legs after the delivery brushed his thigh pad.

The generous spirited might suggest it was an unfortunate dismissal. But, if you try to play straight balls through square leg, if your balance is so poor that your head falls over to the off side leaving you unaware of the position of your stumps, such things will happen.

Previous dismissals surely played a part. Cook has been struggling outside off stump in recent months and here appeared to over-compensate by ensuring he would not be reaching at one. Such a solution simply created another problem, though.

Nor is this failure an aberration. Since the start of 2014, Cook is averaging just 13.85 in Test cricket with a top score of 28. He has not made a half-century in seven innings and not made a century in 25. If England hide behind poor fortune for Cook's decline, they are in denial.

Weariness - mental and physical weariness - might have played a part. After enjoying a spell in early afternoon where his side claimed four wickets for two runs in 21 deliveries, Cook must have hoped that India could be dismissed for a total of around 350; probably under par on such a benign surface.

Instead, for the third time in as many years, England conceded a century stand for the tenth-wicket. Yet again, Cook was obliged to force Anderson and Stuart Broad into new spells. England saw a game slip away from them and the lack of potency in their attack exposed.

Cook was left to reflect on a situation in which the English system - a system that leaves counties requiring five days of ticket receipts to afford the cost of hosting Test cricket - works against the national side rather than playing to its strengths. For make no mistake, in years to come, this rotten pitch, a slice of Nagpur in Nottingham, may be remembered as a contributory factor in Cook's demise.

There is little so dispiriting for a fielding side than a lengthy tenth-wicket stand. Not only do such partnerships frustrate and embarrass bowlers, but they dispirit and tire entire teams. Bowlers who think their work is done are forced into new spells; plans that appeared to have been working are undermined and minds that were beginning to turn to batting are forced to wrestle with an irritation that had not been anticipated.

The fact that Mohammed Shami drove Anderson for six has a significance beyond the symbolic. Not only did it underline the lack of potency in England's main weapon on his favourite surface, but it suggested a worrying tiredness at this stage of the series. With five Tests to be played in 42 days, the last thing Cook wanted was to force his strike bowler into 38 overs in the first innings of the series. Demanding such spells of such a bowler is like using a sports car to transport scaffolding.

Equally, the workload required of the seamers underlined the lack of effectiveness of Moeen. While he did not, with one full toss and one long-hop excepted, bowl poorly, he was simply unable to contain skilful batsmen in such conditions. He conceded more than five an over and, at one stage, was hit for two sixes in three balls.

Moeen may develop into a fine Test bowler but, for now, England's lack of a world-class spinner is making Cook's job, and the job of his seamers, far more demanding. It might well be relevant that Simon Kerrigan, the left-arm spinner who endured such a tough debut at The Oval last year, has acted as 12th man for England in this Test.

There were, perhaps, other signs that the pressure was beginning to distort Cook's thinking; other signs that all the criticism, all the abuse, was beginning to convince him to stray from the methods that come naturally and persuade him to experiment.

For when Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar came together, Cook experimented with a field that included, for a while, three short midwickets and no slips. And, for a while, he experimented with only one fielder on the leg side.

Whether such tactics were admirably inventive or the symptom of a man trying too hard to appease his critics probably depends on your viewpoint before this match began.

The truth is, Cook did not have a bad day in the field and England did not bowl badly. Quite the opposite, really. In difficult conditions Broad, in particular, displayed fine heart and skill and it is hard to think what Cook could have done differently. Until Shami and Kumar's intervention, it might even have been considered an excellent day.

But Cook's primary role remains that of an opening batsmen. And whether as a result of the burden of captaincy, whether it is media pressure or whether fate has simply mixed a perfect storm of problems, his run of grim form is turning into something of a marathon. And if he cannot make runs on these pitches… well, it will not grow any easier.

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Broad hopes to grind down India

'We've got to bat big' - Broad

Stuart Broad has become the latest England player to bemoan the lack of home advantage after his side conceded a tenth-wicket stand of 111 to India on the second day of the Investec Test series at Trent Bridge.

Broad had called for a pitch offering pace and bounce in the lead-up to the game, but was instead presented with a surface that he claimed was slower than those found in India.

While Broad welcomed the apology made by the Nottinghamshire groundsman, Steve Birks, at the end of day one, he did appeal for quicker surfaces for the remainder of the series.

"It's certainly not what England would have asked for and not what Trent Bridge would have hoped for," Broad, who plays his county cricket at the ground, said. "I think the best thing that's happened is Trent Bridge have come out and said 'Look, our mistake', and apologised for the pitch.

"Trent Bridge is renowned for exciting cricket. You come here to see nicks carry, dropped catches, good runs, exciting shots and quick bowling. We've not really seen a lot of that. I just hope that other grounds don't follow suit."

Despite the stand between Mohammad Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Broad felt England had bowled well in difficult circumstances and kept India to a total no better than par. He also felt that England would have a good chance of repaying the punishment as their own innings progresses.

"The two batsmen played very well," Broad said. "But once the ball is soft, there's no help for length bowling. We tried everything but they kept the ball out.

"But in the middle session we claimed four wickets for 90 runs, which was out best session of the day, so it's hard to be too down on ourselves.

"460 is a decent score. It's not a 600 which could easily have happened on that wicket. If you can't bowl a bouncer at a lower-order player, it takes out a lot of the threat. Batsmen can get forward and protect their stumps, and then thrive off any width, so we will be hoping to do the same.

"We've got one job: to bat as big as we possibly can. We have to make use of days three and four and try to put the Indians under pressure on the last day.

"If we can get a good start and build, I'm sure the Indian bowlers won't be looking forward to bowling at Ben Stokes coming in at No. 8 when they're a bit tired. We can certainly get a big score if we get our heads down."

Broad also backed Alastair Cook to recover his batting form and, while admitting the England captain - who has now gone 25 innings without a Test century - was in "a rut" insisted poor fortune was a primary reason for the lack of runs.

"When you're in a bit of a rut and you've not scored runs for a while, things go against you," Broad said. "I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen the ball canon off the thigh pad on to the stumps. They generally go to fine leg for one.

"He is just in one of those places at the minute. It will turn. It just takes a cover drive or a dropped catch to change the momentum. We've certainly got enough cricket in the next five weeks for it to change.

"He was fine afterwards. When you get out like that there's not a lot you can do. If he had drilled one to extra cover he would have been annoyed. But he was chatting away, he was chirpy. He was disappointed not to make a big contribution but those sort of dismissals are so rare you can't do much about it."

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The joy of one, the pain of another

The No. 11 of India's order did something the No. 1 of England's order can only dream of at the moment: score a Test fifty

Highlights: Shami scores maiden first-class half-century at Trent Bridge

A young boy gets on a motorbike for the first time. The instructions are given to him. He looks on quietly. People expect him to struggle. Instead he takes to it fairly well. Muddy dirt tracks are handled with ease. He jumps off little ramps and holds on. He mostly works out the brakes and how to turn and tries, but fails, to pull off a wheelie. Eventually he stops, and the next boy gets on. A boy who has ridden a motorbike for years: yet he makes a simple mistake and rides straight into a BBQ.

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Alastair Cook's first ball catches him by surprise. He has more Test hundreds than any other England batsman but he reacts late to the movement into him and an inside edge ends up at backward square leg. It is not a stunning show of confidence as he wanders to the other end confused.

Mohammed Shami's first ball is a length ball, India's No. 11 rocked forward and defends with the sort of certainty a man with a Test Average of 3.33 really shouldn't have. He's not overawed by his first moment in England. He's not overawed by facing Stuart Broad. He's not even overawed by the sudden collapse that has led to him being in. He's just playing a forward defensive shot.

Cook handles the next few balls fine. A yorker is dug out. He pushes to the legside looking for runs. He is handling the pitch with no demons like it's a pitch with no demons. The ball is not swinging or seaming.

Shami also handles his first few balls well. They bowl short, and he defends well and misses when trying to attack. He cracks one to point. And turns a ball into the leg side to get off the mark.

Shami's first boundary is a heave over the legside against a confused James Anderson. Shami is full of confidence having survived for a while and is now flexing a bit of muscle. He also whips a ball off his pads so well that he beats a man in the deep. He smacks Moeen Ali long and deep with a dance down the pitch. He cracks a short ball to the point boundary and no fielders move. And then to finally get to his 50 he hits a Test bowler with 358 Test wickets over the sightscreen.

Cook gets a ball on his hip and turns it to the rope.

Shami's innings is not all grace and beauty. He tries to upper cut one to third man. He mistimes one so badly he can't even find a fielder. Almost loses his off stump. Almost loses his toe. And is actually caught behind, despite the fact England didn't hear it. It was a quality innings for a No. 11, but not a quality innings.

Cook's innings isn't quality.

Cook faces nine of his ten balls from Shami, including the last one. Getting bowled around your legs can look unlucky. Bowlers don't plan for it very often. And even when they do, it rarely works. This is the sort of ball that Cook could have literally flicked to the leg side with a blindfold on, handcuffed upside down in a tank of water. Now his head leads away from the ball, his body tumbles after it.

Cook has never been pretty, but now he's ungainly and needlessly mobile. He can't stand up properly and exposes the leg stump. The ball flicks his pads and instead of rolling away safely for a leg bye it slams into legs tump. Cook has lost his way so much he can almost see the ball hitting the stumps.

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Mohammed Shami had made a 50 before today, for Bengal U-22s four years ago. Alastair Cook has made 35 fifties at Test Level. Not forgetting 19 fifties in ODIs. There are also a few hundreds. And he once made 294. But Cook hasn't scored more than 51 in his last five Tests.

Today the bunny with no batting pedigree scored more runs than the man with 8,130 runs.

Today two men batted: one with little expectation or hope, the other with fear and uncertainty. One made an unbeaten. The other hit the BBQ.

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Change of attitude aids remarkable stand

India's recent track of record of lower-order runs is poor, but they began correcting that with a mammoth 10th wicket stand which showed the application and mindset that has often been lacking

Highlights: Bhuvneshwar's half-century was part of an 111-run tenth-wicket stand at Trent Bridge

You would need a bad memory - not always a bad thing - to have not thought of Durban just after lunch. Back then, in the last week of the last year, India had been given a flat slow pitch, they had won the toss, had got a good start to the innings, but their tail showed no fight whatsoever when they could have batted South Africa out of the game, made sure they would not lose the series and gone after the South Africa batsman with a free mind. The last five wickets went for 14, India lost the series, and nothing summed the situation up better than Zaheer Khan's second-ball duck ending through a slash after moving away from the stumps.

It showed poor team culture. These were the same bowlers who had given India valuable runs when the team was playing at its best; they were now either running away or not taking their batting seriously. In an era when every tailender, armoured and spoiled by pitches going flatter by the day, makes bowlers get him out, India's tail was non-existent in away matches. Between July 2011 and July 2014, before the start of this match, India have averaged 17.13 for the last three wickets. Only West Indies, Pakistan and Zimbabwe have fared worse. Until today India did not feature in any of the big last-three wicket partnerships over that period.

Going by that track record, this game was going away, and going away fast. And this was an innings where you would have expected extra responsibility from the lower middle order given the bold move of playing only five batsmen. MS Dhoni showed that responsibility, although he was aided by some good fortune. Ravindra Jadeja did not, and got out to a loose shot, although it did seem that Jadeja going for his shots was part of a plan. Debutant Stuart Binny played a horrible nothing shot, and Ishant Sharma misjudged a leave. This was Durban all over again: India had lost four wickets for four runs, they were going to get bowled out for a sub-par score on a flat pitch, and hand over all the momentum to the hosts.

Tail-end runs are as much about attitude as they are about skill and luck. Sometimes you enjoy some good fortune and have a bit of a lark. Sometimes your No. 9 has the skills of a batsman. Mostly, though, they start with a bit of application, an attitude that says 'I am not getting myself out', and you enjoy the luck, the bowlers get tired, and it gets difficult to get you out because most of bowlers' training is in getting proper batsmen out. Everything worked out for Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami here, and they ended up scoring their maiden Test fifties, posted India's longest last-wicket partnership outside Asia, and all but made sure India cannot lose this Test now.

This pitch was similar to Durban. And although there was no Dale Steyn, India still needed some application from somewhere because this match was slipping out of their hands. A calm head needed to arrest that momentum. Bhuvneshwar provided that calm head. He once scored a Duleep Trophy century, which featured a 127-run stand with a No. 11, out of which the No. 11 made only 39. He began similarly here, protecting Shami for a period before letting him become an equal partner, once assured that he could fend for himself on this benign track.

"We just wanted to bat for as long as possible," Bhuvneshwar later said.

Bhuvneshwar batted almost like a proper batsman while Shami had a bit of fun. Most important was that they were not playing soft shots, at least not at the start of the innings. Good fortune followed. A half chance flew wide of short mid-on, the position that had claimed Cheteshwar Pujara on the opening day. Another edge was missed by impire Bruce Oxenford, who had another shocker with ruling M Vijay out incorrectly.

Dhoni has often spoken of the value of the lower-order runs, not just as pure runs but also as a nuisance for the other team, especially their openers. With the whole team coming out to the balcony to applaud the duo's milestones, you could sense the importance they attached to this partnership, especially after more than a couple of them had been naughty with their batting.

You usually associate entertainment and hilarity with partnerships between two tailenders, but there was not much here, thanks largely to an unresponsive pitch. Bhuvneshwar acknowledged this was more like an Indian surface than an English one. Not many might have been entertained by this particular stand, but the value of it in that Indian dressing room is immense. For starters, they will not be thinking of Durban too much.

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Vijay the millionaire meets Vijay the coal-miner

In recent times, fortune has conspired against M Vijay and runs have been lacking. At Trent Bridge, though, after a small slice of luck at the start, he combined flair and patience to great effect

Highlights: Murali Vijay produces first Test ton outside India with 122 not out at Trent Bridge

It is Johannesburg. India have been thumped in the ODIs, this is the first morning of the series, and Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel are going after you. There is bounce, there is swing, there is seam. M Vijay has seen his opening partner get out to a soft shot. He leaves alone 26 of the 42 balls played, scoring just six runs, but is determined to wait for a loose delivery, no matter how long it takes. There hasn't been any for 69 minutes, but he is willing to wait more. And then he gets a monster of almost mythical proportions. Morkel bowls on a length, just outside off, he plays for the angle, it leaves him, bounces too much, takes the edge, and the papers next day have 6 against his name.

In the second innings of the same Test, when everyone is filling his boots, Vijay edges a harmless delivery down the leg side. In the second Test, at Kingsmead, he shows some more discipline and grit, scores 97 at a strike rate of 43, and gets a brute from Steyn. He takes his bottom hand off as he fends, but the ball bounces extra on what has been a slow pitch, and takes his glove on the way through.

Over to New Zealand then. India have been hammered in ODIs again, have conceded 500 in the first innings of the series, and are now 51 for 3. Vijay, though, has dug in again, scoring 26 in 79 minutes. And then Neil Wagner goes round the wicket, getting as close to the side crease as he can without actually bowling a no-ball, and then gets the ball to hold its line against the angle and hits the top of his off stump. The customary strangle down leg shows up in the second innings.

In the first innings of the second Test, Tim Southee bowls one short of a length, wide enough to be left alone, the seam pointing towards slip, and Vijay relaxes thinking he has got a soft leave. The ball jags back, kicks at him, takes his glove on the way to the keeper. He gets another pretty good outswinger from Southee in the second innings.

So in the eight overseas innings that followed his two 150s against Australia at home, Vijay scored 196 runs. His opening partner, who has looked hopeless at times, has had just that little bit of luck that he is so good at capitalising upon. People, meanwhile, are singling Vijay out and ridiculing him as an opener, looking at the runs not at the minutes spent at the wicket, the incredible discipline it has taken for a stylish batsman to buckle down obsessively and to stick to it even when the results are not forthcoming. Or the lack of luck. People have made more mistakes in one innings than Vijay has in two series, and yet scored centuries.

Therefore nobody can begrudge Vijay the faith shown in him by his team management despite those numbers in the last four Tests. Nobody can begrudge him the bit of luck he has had at Trent Bridge. Those who believe in luck and those who have seen Vijay over his last two Test series would have seen the first over of the day would have expected a hundred today. The luck was changing. He edged a ball he didn't even want to play at, and got four for it. He pushed forward rather tentatively, got a thick edge, and again got four. If he had still failed today, he would have really kicked himself.

Those two boundaries, on a Trent Bridge pitch that needed only oranges and saoji cuisine to move out from Nottingham to Nagpur, gave Vijay the start he needed. The next ball was a half-volley on the pads, and Vijay tucked into it. Soon Vijay was 25 off 24 with six boundaries in it. All that hard work done over the last year was paying off.

Vijay is a moody batsman. One day he can bat like a millionaire, on another a coal-miner. He hasn't always been able to combine the two. He was unlucky in some of the instances mentioned above, but also paid the price for not putting all the bad balls away. On other occasions he has also been guilty of throwing it away playing a shot too many after getting off to a quick start. In this knock he mixed the two approaches perfectly.

By lunch Vijay had scored 55 off 89 already. The pitch was doing nothing, and a sunny afternoon awaited. Runs would be there for the taking, but England came back with an inspired session of bowling. They were accurate, they were intense, they reversed the ball, and they took out Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli within three overs after the restart. Runs dried up. This was the time to go down into the pits. The millionaire from the pre-lunch session removed his jacket, rolled up his sleeves and went a-digging.

Nothing summed it up more than the 38th over of the day. The ball had been reversing, and mostly it reverses in. That could have been the only possible explanation for the wicket of Kohli. He pushed at a wide one because at the back of his head expected it to reverse in, and wanted to guard his stumps. Anderson bowled two full deliveries, just outside off, and normally you would be playing at them because they are expected to bend back in. Unless you spot clearly and early that the shiny side is on outside. Vijay had, and left them alone. Twice more he shouldered arms in that over, and when the shine was on the inside he strode forward and defended.

Vijay waited for the loose balls thereafter. There weren't many, but he was patient. He scored only 38 in the middle session and 30 in the last. From 92 to 99 he took 24 balls. Then spent another 13 on 99. Luck was shining on him again when he called MS Dhoni through for a non-existent single. Dhoni was willing to risk sacrificing his wicket. With Vijay's luck over the last year or so, the throw would have hit the stumps, and Dhoni would have been run out with Vijay on 99, and that would have messed with Vijay's head. Not today.

Vijay was not out of the pits yet, though. He allowed himself a few shots before playing 35 straight dot balls leading up to the stumps. He might have been setting himself up for day two: ten of his 13 first-class centuries before this have been 139 or more, including three double-centuries.

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England 'frustrated' with pitch

Anderson: We want a far contest between bat and ball

James Anderson admitted the England team were "frustrated" by another low, slow surface that did nothing for the home attack on the first day of the Investec Test series against India.

Murali Vijay batted throughout the day to make an accomplished century as India lost only four wickets on a pitch that did little to assist the England seamers. The Trent Bridge groundsman admitted he was disappointed with the lack of pace in his pitch.

While Anderson suggested the England attack, who conceded less than three an over, could be proud of their day's work in challenging circumstances, he also hinted that the surface did not allow for an "even contest between bat and ball".

Just as Stuart Broad, in the run-up to the Test, requested enough carry to ensure that edges should carry to the close fielders, so Anderson bemoaned the lack of such carry as two edges dropped short of the slip cordon and another mishit fell short of silly-point.

"It was frustrating," Anderson said. "It's not great, but there is not a lot we can do about it unless some strict directives come in.

"I thought we did brilliantly today. Our attitude was fantastic. We could have moaned about the pitch quite easily and sulked about, but I thought all the bowlers stuck at their task brilliantly and we're pretty happy with our day's work.

"As bowlers we don't expect seam movement. We expect flat pitches at Test level. We just expect our nicks to carry and a more even contest between bat and ball."

Asked if the pitch was good and whether England had utilised home advantage, Anderson replied "probably not on both counts. We're amazing hosts.

"It was frustrating. But the pitch is what it is and there is not a lot we can do about it at this stage. We've got to rest well and stick at it tomorrow. Even two days out we could see the pitch wasn't going to be one with huge amounts of pace in it. But it is something you've got to try and put out of your mind. Our job is to take wickets and all day long we tried to do that. We tried different things: different fields; different balls. We tried everything."

England enjoyed some success with their experimentation. Cheteshwar Pujara was caught at a short mid-on after Anderson bowled a full cutter with an unusually straight field, while Liam Plunkett bowled with six men on the leg side for a while. England bowled nine maidens in 14 overs immediately after lunch, with Stuart Broad miserly and Anderson gaining just enough reverse swing to trouble the batsmen.

"On a pitch like that you have try and be creative and unsettle the batsmen as much as you can," Anderson said. "All the bowlers came up with ideas and Alastair Cook was brilliant with his plans. We worked really well together at unsettling them. The way we came out after lunch was brilliant. We got two quick wickets and could have had a third with a nick that dropped short of second slip."

But despite England enjoying arguably their best day in the field this summer, India have the upper hand in this game.

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