Hale & Hartley for England

A MEMBER of the travelling Barmy Army played ‘Rally ‘Round The West Indies’ as news started filtering that they had beaten Australia in Brisbane.

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A few hours later, as the shadows lengthened and artificial light started to replace the dimming natural light, they were creating quite the din in the city of pearls.

Not to be left behind, the locals — 25,000 or so — were cheering every run that was being scored by their boy Mohammed Siraj. They were also imploring Jasprit Bumrah to continue to block. Two of India’s lead new-ball bowlers had pushed, prodded and chanced their way to a partnership of 25. They needed 29 more to seal what would have been one of the greatest lastwicket escape acts in the history of the game.

But Siraj, one of the few Indians to come down the track against the visiting spinners on Sunday, was stumped. Tom Hartley, who was offered some words of encouragement after a dispiriting first day of Test cricket (none for 63 in nine overs), had finished with seven wickets across 26.2 largely captivating overs. He found nothing to work with on the first day as Yashasvi Jaiswal prevented him from developing any rhythm.