There were no nightmares in the pitch. Or, at least, Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara made the Wankhede surface on Day 2 in Mumbai look like a pleasant dream.

Ironically, on the same surface, England had flayed and struggled to reach 400. At that point, it seemed they had got enough; considering how erratically the pitch was behaving. India could collapse from here, but at the end of the second day, Vijay and Pujara had given enough evidence that England were going to have put in a supreme effort to win this Test. India did not lose a single wicket in the last session of the day, finishing on 146/1, trailing England by another 254 runs.

And for that, they should give credit to Vijay and Pujara, two batsmen who never seem flustered. If England thought Vijay’s weakness was the short ball, he was in no mood to blink. The few snorters were calmly ducked under but when the spinners came on, Vijay skipped down and played his shots. His unbeaten 70 at the end contained six fours and two big sixes, a statement of intent to prove that the pitch was not the problem, England’s batting was.

Pujara, at the other end, seemed in even better touch. His supple wrists did most of the work for him as he hit through mid-wicket and took the runs on offer, whenever required. England’s choice of going in with two spinners already seems to have backfired but to be truthful, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid never managed to establish the kind of deadly rhythm that Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja had enjoyed.

What next? If Pujara and Vijay can kick on, India could be realistically looking at a first innings lead. And considering how difficult England found the surface in their first innings, that may well be the end of this Test (and series) for them.

Brief scores:

India 146/1 (Murali Vijay 70 not out, Cheteshwar Pujara 47 not out; Moeen Ali 1/44) trail England 400 by 254 runs