4th Test: India spinners are winners again in Motera on Day 1

Yes it turned but not viciously Yes there was true bounce and decent carry something which was missing in the previous TestAnticipation of how the pitch for the fourth and final Test at the Narendra Modi Stadium would play finally ended on Day One on ThursdayTo top it England also won the toss and chose to exploit battingfriendly conditions However their efforts helped the visitors put up only 205 runs on the board in the first innings India were 241 losing Shubman Gill leg before on the third ball of the opening over from James AndersonOnce again the Indian spinners dominated the show with eight wicketsmdashAxar Patel 468 R Ashwin 347 and Washington Sundar 114 Pacer Mohammed Siraj claimed the other two wickets rather important ones of Joe Root 5 and Jonny Bairstow 28 England saw contributions from Ben Stokes 55 Daniel Lawrence 46 Ollie Pope 29 and Bairstow but no partnership could go beyond 50 runs the highest being a 48run stand between Stokes and Bairstow for the fourth wicketMost of the English batsmen looked far better equipped than the previous daynight Test that got over in two days The batters often stepped out to negate spin applied reversesweep effectively against Axar and Ashwin But their body language or the mental makeup just wasnrsquot there to suggest that England are keen to stage a remarkable comeback to draw the Test series 22 Opener Dom Sibley 2 Stokes and Dom Bess 3 were all guilty of getting out on straighter deliveriesStokes was frustrated with his dismissal after a straight delivery from Sundar hit his pads ldquoIt is very frustrating that I spent two and a half hours trying to avoid getting out to a straight ball then I ended up getting out to a straight ballrdquo he saidLast matchrsquos half centurion Zak Crawley 9 and Lawrence were dismissed trying to be brave as suggested by English skipper Root on the eve of the matchHowever pacer Siraj too troubled English batters with pace and different lengths He beautifully set up Root and Bairstow After consistently making the ball move away from them Siraj managed to get one to swing in to be trapped LBWRegarding Rootrsquos dismissal Siraj said ldquoI thought I would set him up by continuously bowling away deliveries After that in my next over the first ball I thought I will bowl in and up And the way I had thought it happenedrdquoSiraj playing his second Test after the momentous tour to Australia was aware of Bairstowrsquos vulnerability against the inswinging deliveries after watching his videos So the Hyderabadi consistently bowled in one area to trouble himStokes conceded they missed a golden opportunity to put up a 300plus total ldquoWe are more than capable of scoring 300 runs on a wicket like that out here Frustrating but we canrsquot dwell on it too muchldquoI know overall itrsquos a much better wicket than the last one we played on so wersquore just disappointed not to still be battingrdquo he concludedBrief scoresEngland 205 all out B Stokes 55 D Lawrence 46 A Patel 468 R Ashwin 347 M Siraj 245 v India 241 C Pujara 15 J Anderson 01