We believe we can chase anything: Crawley

VISAKHAPATNAM: England opener Zak Crawley on Saturday said its ultra-attacking approach allows it to chase “anything” in the fourth innings after the visitor conceded a 143-run lead to India in the second Test.

India extended its overall lead to 171 runs without loss at stumps on day two after bowling out England for 253.

Crawley’s confidence has more reasons to it than hollow bravado. The tourist was 190 runs in deficit even in the series opener at Hyderabad but it pulled off a comeback win for the ages. Back in 2022, England comfortably chased a stiff target of 378 in the rescheduled fifth Test against India in Birmingham to draw the home series.

“We won’t get too far ahead of ourselves, focus on tomorrow (Sunday) morning first, focus on ourselves. That is what we did really well last week.

“If you look at the game as a whole, we looked at one session at a time, even less than that at times. We will do that again and I think that gives us the best chance.

“We believe we can chase anything and we’ve shown that before,” said Crawley, England’s best batter in the first innings with 76 off 78 balls. The opening batter felt the surface is a lot better than the turner in Hyderabad and it was just the brilliance of Jasprit Bumrah that made the difference.

“Bumrah bowled unbelievably well. It felt like a better wicket than last week batting on it at that point. There wasn’t as much turn. But you have to hold your hand up sometimes and say that’s a fantastic spell in these conditions.”

What makes Bumrah so special?

“Just that reverse. He’s got that pace, the change-ups, he can swing it both ways, but the reverse swing goes a lot later than normal swing. It’s just that little bit harder than normal swing.

“He was getting it to go a long way and he bowled some cracking deliveries. Yeah, he mixes it up very well so we have to find ways to counteract that and we will strive to do that,” said Crawley.

He also doesn’t see the pitch deteriorating as much as it did in Hyderabad.

“I’m not certain to be honest. But I feel like it’s not breaking up like last week. I don’t think it’s going to be like last week where it’ll turn that much. It will obviously turn more than now, that’s always the case here, but I don’t think it’ll be as tricky as it was in the fourth innings for them last week.” Crawley concluded with rich praise for India opener Yashavi Jaiswal who made a memorable double hundred while no other batter could even cross the 40-run mark.

“Yeah, unbelievable innings. Seems like a fantastic player. Really big fan of the way he goes about it, he’s really aggressive and it’s obviously going to be a very special knock. “I mean, no one else got 40 (runs) and you know, there are some good players in that team. Fair play to him. You don’t mind that. You can hold your hand up,” Crawley was gracious in his praise.