Test Series Review - England vs India 2014

 England did not quite turn the tables in the Test series as much as barged in to the room, raised that table by one of its legs, smashed it on the floor and shoved the pieces into the collective mouth of this Indian team. On that glorious evening at Lord’s, during the presentation ceremony Michael Atherton grilled Alistair Cook with the kind of uncomfortable questions which looked more like a father talking to his daughter’s boyfriend for the first time. At that point, it was more a case of When rather than If Alistair Cook would go. 28 days later he is a national hero, James Anderson is closing in on the record for England’s leading wicker taker, Moeen Ali is England’s best spinner and MS Dhoni still continues to lose overseas Test for fun. Here is how they did it

That old wine which keeps getting better and better

It was billed as a battle between England’s experienced bowling unit and India’s emerging batting stars. James Anderson and Co took some time to generate full steam, preferring to do the warm up in the first 2 Tests. While the Trent Bridge pitch nullified their skills, they were guilty of some directionless bowling on the first day at Lord’s.  All they needed was an ICC hearing to inspire them and since then they made it a habit to scythe through the Indian batting lineup. Since Lord’s, India’s first innings scores were 330, 152 and 148, an indication that they never had the ground stand and fight on.  It is hard to recover from low first innings scores unless you have Marshall, Holding, Akram, McGrath and Warne in your team.  All India had was Ishant (stood out for 2 Test due to Injury), Shami, Pankaj, Kumar and Jadeja. Shami and Kumar started the series brightly but the inexperience of playing a 5-Test series caught up with them eventually. As Cook pointed out, England managed to put a lot of mileage in the legs of Indian bowlers in the 3^rd Test, which definitely showed in the last 2 Tests. Kumar appeared tired, Shami got dropped, Pankaj toiled and Jadeja was being Jadeja.  And all this while, James Anderson swung, seamed and bounced that red cherry.

Bell was ringing, Root was strong and Ballance was good

Except at Lord’s, England enjoyed marginal upper hand every time their middle order was brought to the crease, mainly because of India’s batting failures. And every time Joe Root made sure that they never relinquished that advantage. He was the link which connected the middle order and the tail. He, along with Butler, strung together a series of partnerships, which led to huge leads and India never looked like to recovering from them. Root ended up being England’s leading run scorer for the series with 518 runs which included 2 centuries and 3 fifties. Ballance was not far off, with 503 runs for the series, providing stability and composure at the top of the order. He never showed any after effects of that late night, half naked drinking binge.  There was no looking back for England once Bell found his groove too. They racked up huge first innings totals for the last 2 Tests which was good enough for 20 combined Indian wickets.

Dhoni got cooked

“Cook and Dhoni. Dhoni and Cook. Possible mates. Possible nemeses”. That is what Sidharth Monga wrote about them in the series preview, indicating that they could have been 2 sides of the same coin. Still trying to figure out their best combinations, still trying to fight their own demons and still trying to prove that they have got what it takes to captain at the Test level, after 187 Tests between them. At the end of the series, if Cook was one side of the coin, Dhoni appeared like something which belongs to the Barter system era. Cook did not need to make any innovative calls or inspired selections, as Indians pressed that self destruction button far too often. He, at best, was assured and composed in his captaincy. Dhoni on the other hand, except the Ishant Sharma move at Lord’s, was largely defensive, timid and uninspiring. Stuart Binny was a staggeringly poor selection, though not because of any of his faults, as he was never given a proper spell and batted below Jadeja in the batting order.  The continuous selection of Jadeja, in place of Ashwin did not work out at all, which, I believe, is partly because of the field set for him, forcing him to bowl on the off stump. Dhoni managed to grind out 4 fifties in the series, despite his technique and bowler friendly conditions, but none of them were influential ones. As the series went on, his keeping also disintegrated. But by that time the spirit was drained and series was long gone.

Moeenalitharan

I don’t know which one was funnier, Stuart Binny playing 3 Tests or Moeen Ali picking up 19 wickets for the series, with match winning figures of 6/67. Indian batsmen, with a combination of recklessness and incapability, made Moeen Ali look like Muralitharan at his peak. When Cook attended his final presentation ceremony of the summer at The Oval, the effort to find out at least one decent spinner for England was replaced by the debate of who is the second best spinner in the country. I don’t think Moeen is going to be a long term solution, but he is doing his short term job exceptionally well.

“Catch me if you can” – A cricket ball to Indian fielders

I know that bread and butter is part of the traditional English breakfast. But I am not sure whether keeping the left over butter on your hands throughout the day has something to do with the tradition. Atleast, that is what Indian fielders made us to think. India’s slip catching rate hovered somewhere around 50% which says that they managed to drop as many as they caught. It was so amateurish that it appeared downright funny at times, which makes you think what is the role of the fielding coach if he can’t correct something which happened in the first Test, even by 5^th Test. Ofcourse, it helped England that their fielders remained alert throughout the day as their bowlers created chances after chances. But then that is the kind of ability and temperament needed at slips. You may be crouching up and down for the entire day, with nothing coming your way. And then in the final over of the day you are supposed to catch the half chance which flew towards to your wrong side from that blind spot of the bat. It is fair to say that, if not in batting, India missed Sachin, Dravid and Laxman in this series in the slips.

New era starts with a defeat. Manchester United 1 - 2 Swansea

Louis Van Gaal started his Old Trafford reign with an unwanted record, United losing the first home match of the season for the first time in 42 years. If ever he needed an indication that this squad needs addition, the 90 minutes at Old Trafford provided that. He had his share of injury problems which forced him to give debut to Jesse Lingard and Tyler Blackett for the first game of the season. While Blackett had a reasonably good game (though he gave away the foul which led to the second goal ) at left back, Lingard had to come off midway through the first half, coming worse off a challenge.

I would like think that it was illusion, but there appeared to be lot off empty seats at Old Trafford, strange for the first game of the season. United started the game at a lively pace and bossed possession at 65-35 by the end of first half, but there was a lack of clear cut chances. Ashley Young appeared to have left his pre-season form back in the United States and Fletcher was largely ineffective in the midfield. Herrera managed to strike an understanding with Mata, who was playing behind Rooney, but Swansea kept their shape and composure. Van Gaal’s first half time talk in a competitive game had to be a morale raising one, as Kim Sung-Yeung gave Swansea lead on 28^th minute, driving to the left of De Gea after he was given too much time and space, as he could literally walk into the position.

Adnan Januzaj who came on for Lingard, and Nani, a half time substitute for Hernandez, showed much needed urgency at the start of the second half. Januzaj had some incisive runs down the right flank, and one of them, resulted in the corner which led to United’s first goal. Swansea failed to deal with the first time ball which Jones could only head back awkwardly. By the time it reached Wayne Rooney, he was past it but his overhead kick was precise and found its way to the goal. Later Rooney’s freekick, from just outside the box, struck the outside of the frame and flew wide after Fabianski had already given up. Though he scored one and almost put in another, his passing was off the mark, resulting in breaking up a lot of attacks in the final third. The wave of attacks at the Stretford End did not arrive at all after Swansea regained their lead and United had to settle for second best at the end.

There is a long way to go before we can judge Van Gaal. Today showed that he is not afraid to make changes and ready to put faith on youth, something United are known for. But there is no doubt that he needs additions at CB and someone in the holding midfield role too. It may turn out to be a blessing in disguise that United are not playing in the Champions League this season. We would have been badly exposed in Europe with this squad and that would have affected the League form and confidence as well. Now it is all the more important that United get hold of some decent players before the transfer window closes, and make strides domestically.

A word on Swansea too. Not many survive a player – manager role in League, especially when it is done midway through the season. Gary Monk had done a good job last season achieving survival, albeit with only 2 games left, and he seems to have grown in the role of a full time manager. There will surely be tougher days and tougher tests to face, but he looks like he has the belief and ability to face them. His players put in some heavy challenges today, high on intent though none of them can be termed as malicious. They seem to be responding to his instructions and absorbed his calmness and composure in their play as well.

It was the first Premier League game since its beginning when Ryan Giggs is not a player! Let that sink in and hope that he will see better days as an Assistant Manager.

7th heaven for Ishant - 2nd Test, Lord's , England vs India

Day-1

Ajinkya Rahane managed to get over the dangerous 20s syndrome shown by Indian batsmen and found himself a place in the famous honours board at the Lord’s. It was a top top knock considering, India were 145 for 6 towards the end of the 2^nd session and in danger of losing whatever reasonable ground they were able to make in the first session.  And it was heartening to know when he revealed later that he watched Video’s of Mike Hussey’s batting to learn how to bat with the tail. Taking a leaf out of Mr  Cricktet’s book, Rahane did not try to farm the strike too often, instead trusting the tail enders and allowing them to share the responsibility as well. The pitch was so green that MS Dhoni and Co had a tough time finding it when they strode out in the morning. That is the greenest I have ever seen at the Lord’s , though it was an altogether different matter that England could not fully capitalize. They were way too short in the first session, had a good second session and the tired legs showed in the last session.  James Anderson was the standout bowler. He managed to attain reverse swing even on that spongy green top, and consistently troubled the batsmen though, throughout the day he wore the expression of a man who just had a 14 hour shift in a coal mine.  May be it is the impending hearing on his altercation with Ravindra Jadeja, may  be it is those backbreaking number of overs he delivered in the last 3 years, or may be it is just that he woke up at the wrong side of the bed! India finished the day with a score which looked highly unlikely by the end of the second session, which makes them the happier of the two sides when the day finished.

Day-2

Thos who know Gary Ballance would be telling that he showed much less energy on the cricket pitch in amassing a well crafted 100 than when he danced half naked at midnight in a bar after the first Test! Whatever the means, his innings helped to keep England afloat though he would be cursing at the way he got out towards the end of the day.  In the first Test at Trentbridge, Ishant Sharma showed why he is playing in his 56^th Test match despite a bowling average of 37.79. Today he showed how he ended up with such an average after 56 Test matches. When the pitch and conditions demanded a fuller length, he went back to his now notorious three quarter length and consistently beat the bat, without ever inducing an edge.  Dhoni was decisive most of the occasions today when it came to captaincy decisions. It was a relief that he did not try to match Cook’s decision to put 6 men on the boundary when India’s number 10 and 11 were batting on the first day evening!

Day-3

By the close of play, what appeared to be a snoozefest of an innings from Murali Vijay carries more importance than actually seemed in the beginning. Throughout the day the momentum shifted hands in a way which only Test cricket can produce. India needed early wickets and got them which suggested that they would get a small but handy lead. But it was England who ended up with a 24 runs lead thanks to the last wicket heroics from Anderson and Plunket. India wiped the arrears of without much trouble before Joe Root at point pulled off a brilliant catch to send Dhawan back. India then appeared to be getting back in the game with the second wicket partnership between Vijay and Pujara but the Test came alive with 3 wickets in no time. Dhoni managed to see off the day without further trouble but the game is still on a knife edge. Vijay is still there and if India’s lower order can give him enough support, a target of 250-270 is well on the cards. One bad session or even a bad phase of 10 overs is what either team needs to lose the match. So expect a cautious but fascinating 4^th day at the Lord’s tomorrow.

Day-4

Ravindra Jadeja to win a Test match for India at the Lord’s with his batting. If someone had told me that an year ago, I would have promptly sent him to the remotest corner of earth to regain his sanity. Not anymore though.  Nobody would have blamed Alistair Cook for starting to think about his batting when India were 6 down with a lead of only 180 odd runs in bowler friendly conditions. Enter Ravindra Jadeja.  It is probable that he did not read the script or missed my point about cautious cricket on a defining day. The new ball is only 2 overs away. His senior partner is nearing a century and trying to pull India out of the mess. What does he do? He charges the bowler and nearly holes out. But once the nerves settled and sanity returned, he counter attacked with precision which forced the England bowlers to bowl short while bowling full and straight was the logical option. And he brought the sword too, which was on display when he reached 50. It was the Lord’s, holy turf and all that, and he was fooling around in the middle. It is safe to assume that he won’t getting X’mas cards from anyone from this England team. By the time he departed the lead swelled over 300 and there was a general feeling that the target has been achieved. And when England appeared to be making a decent start he returned and won a marginal LBW decision against Sam Robson with his first delivery. Ishant’s inspired spell and 2 wickets towards the end of the day makes India slight favourites to win this. But after 3 years and 15 overseas Tests, they won’t be taking anything for granted.

Day-5

Couple of overs before lunch, Mahendra Singh Dhoni wore a magician’s hat and pulled out an Ishant Sharma sized rabbit out it. And the entire England team played the perfect audience to it clapping and encouraging, egging on and asking for more. An hour later after lunch, the show was all over.  The sight of an Indian bowler bouncing out the opposition was exhilarating. But a greater concern for England is to find that, of the 5 wickets which fell to short balls, 4 were down to temperament not technique. It is downright surprising to think that an England think tank with 80 odd support staff could not make any one in the team to understand that the short ball tactic from Dhoni can’t go on forever and sooner rather than later, he would be forced to take the new ball which would mean going back to full length with Kumar and Shami. Somewhere during that spell it went to their head and the battle became personal.  On a bigger picture, somewhere during the their ascent to the No.1 Test team in the world, among those 160 odd page cookbook and robotized training sessions, they lost the fun part of it. It became everyday work and Monday blues would have caught up with them as well, watching the thoughtless way they played.  Years down the lane, we will look back at this Test match and realize that it is one of India’s great overseas wins. Lord’s is added to the list of Headingly, Melbourne , Rawalpindi and Perth.  And on a different note, I am not a firm believer of poetic justice or moral victories. But there is tinge of karma in the joke that England have not won a Test match since they urinated on the pitch. At the end you get what you give.

Test, the best!

Outside it was 3 degree Celsius and windy too. At best it was butt freezing cold. Inside I sat hunched in front of my laptop, sweating profusely. My index finger started to pain tapping on that refresh button frantically, every 10 seconds. And finally it was all over when Dale Steyn lifted the final delivery into the stands with an expression which said “Fuck those booing”. I have no idea why or how I managed to follow the entire Test match on Cricinfo and look like someone who got hopelessly drunk after a college party at the end of it. Then again, Test cricket does that to you.

Test cricket touches your senses like no other sport. It stimulates and pacifies your soul at the same time.  It does that by giving you infinite possibilities on a passage of play, or even a single delivery.  Pitch, tea break, seam size, old ball, new ball, first day, fifth day, lunch, wind, dust, slope, swing, stance, shiny side, bounce, drinks break, moisture, rough outfield. No other sport has managed to combine even half of those variables and put them together to form a spectacle to captivate the audience, as much as Test cricket does. It can both pause and pace, with equally spectacular efficiency. I have watched Adam Gilchrist scoring a hundred in a session and also Rahul Dravid blocking his way to 12 from 96 balls. On both the occasions, it broke the backbone of the opposition. “It takes all sorts” was one of Peter Roebuck’s books but you will not find a better caption for something which talks about characters in cricket. Cricket’s ability to accept a supreme athlete as good as Jonty Rhodes along with a not-so-movable Inzamam Ul Haq with same nonchalance is what makes it an extra ordinary sport.

Venues play a part too. The boxing day test match at MCG is an yearly pilgrimage for many Australians. Eden Garden fills up for a Test match like no other ground in India. Rum, Reggae and Parties are essentials when cricket comes to Barbados.  The Lord’s is still holy turf. They add to the theater and drama, as much as the cricket on show. In Eden Gardens, I have seen nothing happening for 60 overs and then a slow and rhythmic clap starting at one corner of the stadium. In a matter of seconds, it catches up with the entire crowd, egging the home team on. Then a wicket falls, and another in the same over. The crowd roars, as if a sound of approval. Suddenly a benign pitch start playing tricks, with batsman’s mind. In a matter of session, the opposition gets bowled out. Those who schedule Test matches at new stadiums, most of them suave engineering marvels, in upcoming cities with the emphasis on making cricket more popular, will never understand that feeling of watching Test cricket, accompanied with tradition and culture. 

After 5 days of ebbs and flows, punches and counter punches, batting marathons and fiery spells, the Johannasburg Test match ended in a draw. Born and bred on Superbowls and knockouts, Americans will never understand how a sport can be played over 5 days and still ends in stalemate. Perhaps it was justice that neither team won. After the kind of cricket which was on show, finding a loser from either of those teams would have been cruel. 

There were many who accused the batsmen for trying to be safe in the last 3 overs, than trying to win. But let us not forget that they tried to win for 133 overs faced with a target of 458, while most teams would have shut the shop after losing 4 wickets. That is the ramifications of having a 2 match series, for South Africa just could not lose. There is an argument that the great Australian team under Steve Waugh would have risked a loss while still trying to win that and there is truth in that. But cricket as much reveals character, culture, society and tradition as it enhances them. Unlike Australia, South Africa is a country which is still trying to recover from those apartheid years. Years when isolation and loss were the norms and those scars take time to subside. Cricket always reflects the society it represents, and as any recovering society will do, they chose safety first. Perhaps the chokers tag played a part too.  Perhaps it was cricket’s way of showing that it can be fair too.  Perhaps cricket decided to save me from a broken index finger and a sleepy day at work!

First Ashes Test, Trent Bridge 2013

Connoisseurs of Test cricket will have an almighty smirk on their face tonight looking towards the IPL fanatics and its ilk. No artificially created excitement, no manufactured adjectives and no forced super over would have produced the drama we witnessed at Trent Bridge today. The day started with England as clear favourites and they won at the end, but nobody could have imagined what actually happened in between. As it happened throughout the Test match, the momentum fluctuated wildly, before a lucky lunch break and judicial use of DRS finally settled the matter for England.

For all I can remember for a long time, this is a an Ashes series which England started as an outright favourite and there were even talks of a 10-0 results over the two legs in favour of England. Personally I don’t think the gap between these two teams is as big as it is made out to be, especially with the appointment of Darren Lehman, someone who knows the dynamics of how things work in the Australian Test team, prior to the series. As much as England are delighted to win such a close match, when the dust settles and euphoria subsides, they will look back and realize that only 14 runs separated the sides. After four and a half days, 385 overs and 40 wickets, only 14 runs separated the two teams, and that is not how an outright favourite wins by any means.

By the end of second day, thanks to the debutant Ashton Agar’s heroics, Australia had their noses in front. Looking for a big lead over England’s first innings of 215, the Australian top and middle order collapsed, only to be rescued by the mammoth last wicket stand of 164 between Hughes and Agar, the latter missing a deserved century by 2 runs. And to think that they had England on the ground with 218 for 6, a lead of only 153 runs, Australia must be kicking themselves for letting them off the hook. Bell played his best innings of an Ashes test, ably supported by Prior and Broad in particular, and by the time Jimmy Anderson was caught by Hughes, the target 311 looked over the horizon.

The fifth day started with England needing 4 wickets to win and their fans in full flow. They never panicked until Brad Haddin’s calculated attack on Finn and Pattinson’s brave handling of Swann brought the target down to less than 50, after small but handy contributions from Agar and Siddle. England knew that they needed only one wicket to win but that never seemed to arrive. I was very surprised when England took the option of extending lunch by half an hour in search of the last wicket, when everybody around the ground could really see the momentum shifting towards Australia, slowly but decisively. What they needed was to go back to the dressing room and think with a clear mind rather than trying to finish it in a hurry. It just takes your heart to beat a tad faster for your best laid plans to go awry. By the time England realized it, it was almost too late and Stuart Broad had to fake a ‘stone in my shoe’ act to remove and re lace it to avoid an extra over before lunch. Aleem Dar had none of it and duly signalled for another over, and with that it all came down to 1 wicket or 20 run at lunch. At this point, this was a welcome distraction for England who got the opportunity to regroup. In hindsight, they would not have extended the session for half an hour, and in all probability Australia would have won the Test match without that lunch break. That is the real beauty of Test cricket, with its ifs and buts. Over 5 days, with all the breaks, with follow-ons, with new balls, it offers a theater of infinite possibilities.

The last few minutes of the match were played as if in slow motion. Anderson’s off-cuttor was inside edged, albeit a tiny one, to Prior who duly convinced his not-so-convinced caption to go for a review. From Haddin’s reaction and the slight sound, it looked out but the third umpire took an unbelievably long time, just to conform to the rule of being sure without a doubt to overturn the field umpire’s call. And when Aleem Dar raised his left index finger, the ground, where deep breaths were clearly audible until 5 minutes ago, erupted. Perhaps it is fitting that the last moment of the match is decided by DRS, as it was a talking point throughout the match. As much as it almost did its purpose, eliminating clear howlers, it also showed its drawbacks in ‘broad’ daylight. Australia was furious when Stuart Broad edged to second slip and stood his ground, but they were helpless as they had already used their quota of 2 unsuccessful appeals. Imagine if England did not have an option of review for the last wicket and Australia goes on to win it, it would have been a gross injustice. It is high time ICC finds an alternative to the limited number of times DRS can be used, else an ugly situation is bound to occur sooner.

The words Edgbaston 2005 were used a million times in the last hour of play. I will be happier if I can get to use them all through this series. Here is hoping for a drama filled and action packed 4 more Tests.