This morning saw two superb test match finishes. I was following the India v England match on Talk Sport2, while over on Five Live Sports Extra TMS were covering Australia v West Indies. A West Indies side who lacked most of their best known names and had been written off in brutal terms in the run up to the series, and who were 0-1 down in a two match series (this latter is an abomination that should never occur) managed to overcome Australia, winning by a slender eight runs. The body of this post is devoted the action I was listening to, in Hyderabad.
ENGLAND CREATE HOPE
England resumed 126 runs ahead of India with four second innings wickets standing (see here for an account of days 1-3). Rehan Ahmed and Tom Hartley both provided good support to Ollie Pope, while the Surrey man headed towards a double hundred. At 173 he established a new record for a visiting number three batter in a second innings in India, beating the 172 scored by Ken Barrington at Kanpur in 1961. At 177 he passed Alastair Cook’s record for the highest second innings score in India by any English batter. The loss of Hartley and Wood in quick succession, which brought a limping Leach to the crease (the left arm spinner has a knee injury, though he managed to both bat and bowl today) derailed Pope’s advance on the 200 mark, and in the new circumstances he essayed a somewhat desperate reverse sweep and was out for 196. Given the circumstances (India, pitch showing signs of misbehaviour – the ball that got Rehan Ahmed went through very low indeed, England under the gun for much of his innings) this was as good a test knock as has been played by an English batter in my lifetime. England had reached 420, setting India 231 to win the match. Lunch was taken at the end of the England innings. Few Indian bowlers had cause to enquire to closely as to their figures, but the shining exception was Jasprit Bumrah, who somehow conjured up figures of 4-41. Bumrah now has 146 test wickets at 20.85, which means that of bowlers who have finished with more wickets than him precisely two, Sydney Francis Barnes of England, 189 at 16.43 each and Alan Keith Davidson of Australia with 186 at 20.53 each have better averages than the Indian pace ace.
THE INDIAN CHASE
Rohit Sharma began well for India, while Tom Hartley, perhaps heartened by having batted so well, was a different bowler from the guy who took only just more than 20 overs to concede 100 in the first innings. Hartley got Jaiswal, who had given him a lot of stick in the first innings, and also got Shubman Gill cheaply. Gill has talent to burn, but the hard facts are that after a decent number of tests he now averages below 30 at that level, which is not the stuff of which number threes are made. At 63 Hartley made his most important intervention to date, pinning Sharma LBW for 39 (the Indian skipper sent it upstairs, but it couldn’t have been much plumber than it actually was). Axar Patel was promoted to number five in the hope that the presence of a left hander would disrupt Hartley. He batted reasonably until with 17 to his name he pushed one straight back to Hartley and it was 95-4. At 107 KL Rahul fell LBW to Leach. At 119 came a double blow which virtually settled the issue, Jadeja being run out by Stokes’ direct hit throw and then Shreyas Iyer being caught by Root off Leach. That left India needing 112, with keeper Bharat, off spinning all rounder Ashwin and the two rank tail enders Bumrah and Siraj to score them. Bharat and Ashwin threatened for a while, scoring 57 together before Hartley got one through Bharat;s defences for his fifth wicket of the innings. One run later a smart stumping by Foakes off Hartley sent Ashwin on his way, leaving the two specialist bowlers to attempt to score 54 more for victory. Virtually every ball, especially those faced by Siraj, looked capable of yielding the final wicket, but the end was prolonged deep into the extra eight overs, claimed by England to finish things today, as fortune favoured the batters for a time. Eventually Siraj charged down the pitch against Hartley and missed his shot giving Foakes the easiest of stumping chances, which the keeper made look every bit as easy as it was. India were all out for 202 giving England victory by 28 runs. Hartley, so awful in the first innings, had redeemed himself with 7-62 second time round. Pope, who had taken a couple of catches early in the Indian innings to go with his magnificent 196 was deservedly named Player of the Match. Without his innings there would have been nothing for England to defend. India had cause to rue the cavalier way in which they batted in the first innings – they could and should have scored well over 500 against the England bowling of that innings, and that would have prevented any chance of them facing a target in the face of which they could collapse.
Here are links to full scorecards of this match and AUS v WI.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
aspiblog 