Recent Match Report – India vs England, England tour of India, 1st Test

Ollie Pope's unbeaten 148 was the biggest turnaround since the opening innings in which he obediently followed the turn with his hands and nearly slipped. In the second innings he swept and reversed with aplomb to play with the spinners' lines and lengths and capitalize on the enterprising start provided by Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett. He was rewarded with a maiden century for India, the highest second innings score by a visiting batter in India since Alastair Cook's 175 in Ahmedabad 12 years ago.

In total, England scored 79 runs with variations of the sweep without losing a single wicket. Pope alone scored 41 of those runs, hitting the shot almost every time a spinner troubled him. Consequently, England became the first team since Nagpur 2012-13 to score 300 against India in a second innings in India.

India will be grateful that you can't reverse Jasprit Bumrah's sweep. For it could have been worse for the hosts had it not been for an exciting spell of reverse bowling just after lunch in which he got rid of Duckett and Joe Root. The pitch offered only a slow turn and England continued to field high-risk options, but the spinners will still be disappointed that Bumrah was the pick of the bowlers on a day three surface with figures of 12- 3-29-2. R Ashwin went at 4.42 for his two wickets, and Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja at 4.60 and 3.88 for one each.

For all the talk of Bazball and the excellent start England made against the odds in the first innings, what stood out was that their top three fell to traditional exclusions. All three have been caught playing defensively in front of their body, which leaves you at the mercy of the turn, the degree of which you can't predict with certainty.

After taking India's last three wickets for 15 – led again by offspinner Joe Root – England played what they practiced. But not immediately. In his first two overs with the new ball, Ashwin could have had both Duckett and Crawley, but the inside edges fell to either side of short leg. That was enough to shake them. No more, they said.

Crawley started with a reverse sweep against Ashwin before taking Axar downtown. All the sweep played off Ashwin's lengths. In order to stay ahead, he over-threw much more than usual, and only when he got back to a suitable length did he attract some advancing defense from Crawley. The ball didn't turn and the edge slipped. But by then England had scored 45.

Duckett and Pope continued to sweep and overthrow India to the point of distraction. It was obvious that a lot of practice had gone into the sweeps. Like Ben Stokes in the first innings, they almost changed position without changing grip, which allowed them to play the reverse sweep powerfully and in front of square.

After lunch, Bumrah began to knock the ball down, but was left to do so by failing to review a close call against Duckett. He bowled it after some very skillful bowling over two overs, but England had hit four boundaries in that time. Yet when Bumrah trapped Root in front, India had 73 runs in the bag.

Jonny Bairstow thwarted Bumrah by staying on the leg side of the ball to avoid the heavyweights, reacting late if he threw the striker and picking out the slower ones. When it started to look threatening for India, the natural variation of the pitch came to their aid. Jadeja overshot his outside edge and the next ball, almost identical, went straight to dislodge the bail as Bairstow left it alone.

Then came the only period when England allowed spinners to work on a layoff. Ashwin cleverly pushed Stokes back and dragged him with his changes of length until he played a full ball to him, which went past the bat to bowl him. With 27 points still in hand, India would have sensed victory here, especially as Pope and Ben Foakes were forced to play defensively.

There was a spell of 70 balls without a boundary for England as Foakes played in a more traditional manner, and Pope remained silent. After tea, however, the floodgates opened again as India began the session, without much impression, with Jadeja and Axar. This is not the first time in his short tenure as captain, Rohit Sharma has started a session with the bowlers who until then seemed least likely to take a wicket.

In the last session, Pope was even more emphatic with his reverse sweep, and on one occasion even a reverse Dilscooping from Jadeja over the keeper's head. In between, he would give the charge every now and then, but the backbone of his innings was the sweep and reverse sweep. At that time he made a mistake with the backhand, he had already scored 110, and even then he was dropped by Axar at the back point.

Axar returned to take the wicket of Foakes with one that stayed low, but that was the extent of the forays India would make. At stumps on the third day, the new ball was three overs away, which would give India hope. There is every chance that on a slow turning pitch, and given their spin attack, England will not be able to extend their lead sufficiently for this Test, but this turnaround could still have implications for the series.