India find their depth in see-saw session

India had done remarkably well through the first two sessions of the second day in Mohali. Their makeshift opener provided a fine start to the innings and when he was dismissed, their captain took control. Virat Kohli often talks about "intent" in the terms that even while defending, you should appear dominant. Both he and the team's other in-form batsman, Cheteshwar Pujara, exemplified that after lunch against the threat of reverse swing.

England had men on the drive. Their quicks bowled impeccable lines and the legspinner Adil Rashid held his discipline as well. All of that meant India could get only 31 runs in 16 overs between the 26th and 42nd. Kohli's patience was tested with many deliveries loitering in the corridor outside the off stump and he did well as a batsman watching them all carefully and letting them go repeatedly.

Yet so relentless was the bowling that the leading edge was found. In the 37th over, Ben Stokes had the Indian captain reaching away from his body, the bat face turned a touch too early, and the ball flew uppishly into a gap between two cover fielders.

Pujara, at the other end, has little problem lasting through a spell like this. While batting, at least. The post-day press conference was a different story. "The lines they were bowling, I felt, was a little negative," he said. "But I still feel the way we batted, the way we showed character, we were leaving the balls outside the off stump and building a partnership which was very crucial for the team."

Nevertheless, maintaining their plans for so long - well over an hour - began taking its toll on the visitors. Jonny Bairstow dropped a difficult catch, diving low to his left in the 45th over, and Rashid and Gareth Batty dished out treats labeled "hit me". The batsman who was reprieved, Pujara, recorded his third fifty-plus score of the series.

India went to tea at 148 for 2; trailing by 135 runs. Then, they lost three wickets for eight runs in 10 minutes.

Nothing quite established the value of good fielding as the final session.

Second ball in, Pujara hammered a filthy long hop in the air towards deep midwicket. Chris Woakes raced in off the boundary, dived forward and grabbed the ball in both hands inches before it hit the turf. To follow that, Jos Buttler dived to his right to intercept a front-foot slice from Kohli and then broke the stumps down at the non-striker's end while throwing on his knees and the debutant Karun Nair was run out. To get power and accuracy from such an awkward position was remarkable. Equally so was England's discipline. They had kept Kohli scoreless for 10 successive balls, making him desperate enough to call and then send his partner back. Kohli faced another period like this and was eventually dismissed by Stokes for 62 with a substantial 19 overs left to stumps.

Nothing quite established how good R Ashwin is as a batsman as the events that followed.

There is a line Rajinikanth, his favourite actor, says while portraying an old man in response to the villain asking how he was still stylish despite his age. "Koodave poranthathu, engeyum pogathu" [I was born with it, and it ain't goin nowhere]. Ashwin is similar with bat in hand. The on-drive he hit off James Anderson, on the up against the new ball, then holding the pose, was as good as any punchline in any movie. It was the substance that he lacked, until this year.

In the leaves and the blocks, the calm in the face of England building momentum, the way he led Ravindra Jadeja in what could be a match-defining partnership of 67 in 19.3 overs, and patted him on the back for a job well done, were the signs of Ashwin's development. He is no longer part of the lower order. He doesn't need a proper batsman at the other end to tell him what to do. He has become one of those himself, scoring more runs than Misbah-ul-Haq, Faf du Plessis and Ross Taylor this year off relatively the same number of matches.

The 57 not out Ashwin made in Mohali was his third fifty of the series. All of them, not to mention a handy 32 in the second innings to save the Rajkot Test, were made under pressure. He should know pressure; he creates a suffocating amount of it when he bowls and maybe as a result knows just what to do to avoid it when he bats. There was a big point of concern, though. Ashwin had to hobble between the wickets for most of his innings.

"I haven't spoken to Ash after he came out," Pujara said. "But when he was bowling there wasn't anything wrong. Probably he might have caught some niggle when he was batting. I'm yet to speak to him."

Nothing quite established how much fun Test cricket can be as the work of these two teams.

England were on top, with a lead of 79 when Kohli was dismissed. Their lead at stumps was a mere 12 thanks to Ashwin's steel and Jadeja's restraint - the latter withstood Anderson's reverse swing, he didn't mind being 8 off 34 and looked perfectly fine handling the second new ball.

"I would say that we have an advantage because both our allrounders are playing," Pujara said. "So tomorrow, the first session will be very crucial for us. Our game plan would be simple -- we would be looking to take a lead of 75-100 runs. If they continue to bat, you never know. Both of them can bat. We saw in the last game that Jayant Yadav can also bat. Our lower-order has been contributing in all the Test matches. We expect them to continue tomorrow as well."