England assistant coach Paul Collingwood admitted that the team management and the bowlers were surprised to not get any swing from Dukes ball on day three of the ongoing fourth Test match against India at the Oval.
The match saw 13 wickets falling on day one with India getting all out for 191 and England made 290 in their first innings. But in the second innings, Indian batsmen made merry as conditions seemed to have improved for batting thereafter as England bowlers capped a frustrating day, managing just three wickets on Saturday.
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"Lack of swing from the duke ball surprised us. I thought we were very disciplined and stuck to task all day. But one thing that surprised us was the lack of swing from the duke ball. We all know once there's some movement in the air, and the wicket with some carry it would trouble the Indian batsmen.
So we were pretty surprised and could not get the swing. We tried everything with it, changing the shining side but could not get movement,” England assistant coach Paul Collingwood told reporters in a virtual interaction after the day's proceedings.
India ended day 3 on 270/3 thanks to a brilliant 127 from Rohit Sharma and 61 from Cheteshwar Pujara and 46 from KL Rahul. They have a lead of 171 runs with 7 wickets in hand with two days to go in the Test match.
Backing his bowlers, Collingwood said: "I thought we asked questions all day. But a lot of credit goes to the Indian batsmen with Rohit at the top of the order. We had to wait for the breakthrough, thankfully we got it with the help of the second new ball."
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Collingwood also lauded Rohit Sharma’s maiden overseas century and said: “He's got a very good technique. He has played really well so far in the series. We have found in the past he's quite an attacking batsmen. But he has been very watchful in the series. It was hard to create any chances in the series. You got to give him a lot of credit."
Collingwood, however, remained hopeful of making the most of their chances and said they would not be scared of any total.
"We have seen throughout the Test series, momentum shifted very quickly. If we can get some movement, we can exploit the conditions and put the middle and tail order under pressure. The conditions looked good for batting so we should not be scared of whatever total they set. Hope we have a good day tomorrow," he said.
(PTI inputs)
