India v England: second Test, day two – live!

91st over: India 307-8 (Pant 34, Patel 5) Root quietly turns down Jack Leach’s offers, rolls up his sleeves and decides he is the man to tempt Pant with his array of delicious chocolates. Pant watches for a couple of balls then slams him over mid-on for six to the shrieking delirium of the crowd.

90th over: India 301-8 (Pant 34, Patel 5) A cracking first over from Moeen, with that element of luck that any spinner needs. This England, eh.

Moeen grins, bashfully, as Ishant tries to sweep a full toss and top edges to Rory Burns, hair hanging out of his cap very much like it is stuck to the rim, at short leg. He swallows the catch gratefully, and Moeen has four wickets.

Lightning gloves from Foakes as Patel leans forward, is beaten in the flight and misses and with only his big toe teetering above the line, Foakes flicks away the bails. Super ball from Moeen!

89th over: India 300-6 (Pant 33, Patel 5) A fairly non-eventful maiden to start as Leach mixes up his length.

The players are out and it is actually quite hair-raising to hear a proper crowd making proper crowd noises – erratic and squeaky rather than generic and low. Bravely, given his previous encounters with Pant, Root has thrown Leach the ball – no use waiting and wondering.

Mark Butcher is on the Chennai pitch, blazered up and walking towards the camera. He speculates that Ben Stokes might be injured – but speculation is all it is right now. I’m excited/nervous to see how Pant plays this morning, and it seems I’m not the only one.

David Melhuish has had dressing problems. “This seems a fair benchmark just how engrossed I am in this series. Preparing for breakfast I distractedly tried to put my clean underpants on my head. Now where was my beanie …”

“If you are an England fan today, I’d be seriously nervous,” says Ebony Rainford-Brent in the Channel 4 studio.

Andrew Strauss, is more loyal: “I think England need to not buy into the narrative we know it is possible to bat on this pitch, just don’t look too far ahead,”

From my living room to yours, good morning! And a particular good morning to John Starbuck whose email is waiting for me like a wriggly puppy.

“Good morning, Tanya and Happy Valentine’s Day,” and to you John!

“It could be that Virat Kohli was simply waiting for a possible no0ball verdict (unlikely with Moeen) but was probably just disbelief. Ricky Ponting used to suffer from this and there was another Aussie too; the remark ‘Thought the future wasn’t too rosy’ comes to mind when he saw the bails on the ground..

On today’s play, we shall have to put up with Foakes’s chirpy chuntering again. I feel inclined to use the Biden method and remark ‘Will you shut up, man’ but then many keepers do it these days. One can’t help noticing that his sub-continental Tests had a bearing: even though we can’t understand it all, he always ends with an uptalk phrase, so maybe the environment has made him adapt.”

Ali’s top-notch report of the day’s play:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/feb/13/india-england-second-test-day-one-match-report-cricket

and Anand Vasu in the Chennai stadium, a piece which starts with a fabulous first two paragraphs and doesn’t disappoint.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/feb/13/indias-buzzing-crowd-take-joy-from-knowing-where-to-look-in-grim-times

Good morning fellow sleep-dodgers, and those pottering about in time-zones far away from this cold, rocky outpost in the North Sea. May I wish you much love this Valentine’s day, whether or not you are sharing the OBO with your beloved. Maybe the OBO could become the oblique way to send a message from the heart? I have actually had some success as a matchmaker – just ask Neil and Alex (who I can happily name as they’ll never read this.)

Enough. to the game, where India are very well set on a pitch that was breaking up on day one, thanks to a century of ready brilliance from Rohit Sharma, some solid back up from vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, and a cameo-with-promise from Rishant Pant. India finished on 300-6 which wasn’t quite thanks very much and good night, but close.

England kept their heads , produced the occasional beauty, and there were promising returns from Ben Foakes, who kept smartly, and Olly Stone who hit the nineties and dismissed Shubman Gil in his first over. It was great to have Moeen back: he still has the magic in those fingers, but was understandably rusty. He also produced the visual of the day : a bemused Virat Kohli refusing to believe the evidence of his own eyes that he’d been bowled for a duck.

This is a good pre-start read from Jarrod Kimber (also to be found analysing on Talk Sport) on England’s spinners.

Sleep is wafting her crunchy pepperpot but I managed to absorb that Moeen is expensive but bowls occasional amazeballs, Bess spins the ball but struggles with length, Leach is limited against left-handers and Ashwin is the most accurate spinner on the field( though no-one compares with Nathan Lyon). And all illustrated with handy digestible pitch maps. Right, time for a few hours kip – see you just before 4am GMT.