England’s bravado was admirable, and what we’ve come to expect
Vithushan Ehantharajah05-Feb-20242:43
Harmison: England not guilty of ‘going too hard’
The bravado was admirable, and what we have come to expect. A team that has taken it upon themselves to question – even threaten – Test cricket’s traditional whims made their latest one on Sunday evening. No target would put them off. Brendon McCullum said they would have even had a go chasing 600.They ended up falling eight short of half that figure in pursuit of a “milder” target of 399. It would have been the highest chase of the Bazball era, and in India outright. In the end, the ethos wrote a cheque the batters could not cash.Having knocked 67 off for the loss of one last night, only 225 more was managed on day four. That those came in just two sessions is both noteworthy and redundant. The journey was quick, and yet the destination was still all of 106 runs away.The factors for defeat are all on the scorecard. On a pitch where the ones that got in had to make it count, India boasted Yashasvi Jaiswal’s first-innings 209 and Shubman Gill’s 106 in the second. England had a pair of seventies from Zak Crawley and, barring 47 from Ben Stokes in the first innings, no scores of note from a middle order with the most experience of these conditions.Related
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Even while the inexperienced trio of Shoaib Bashir, Tom Hartley and Rehan Ahmed held firm in a toe-to-toe with Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav, India held the edge with Jasprit Bumrah. Match figures of 9 for 91 featured at least three match-turning spells, starting with a day two burst that handed India a first-innings lead of 143 and, ultimately, the Test.It was a reminder of the small margins and fleeting windows of opportunity when you play Test cricket in this part of the world. Getting that refresher with the series tied 1-1 ahead of a 10-day break before the third Test makes it easier to mull over. And as England knocked a football around on the outfield at around 5pm local time, long after the stumps had been pulled and the crowd had spilt out into Visakhapatnam, you sensed this was not a defeat that would derail them.”I think they’re playing very well,” said India head coach Rahul Dravid. “Whether you call it Bazball or whatever you call it. I know it’s just a term – I’m not sure how happy they are about it – but they’re playing really good cricket. I mean, let’s be honest, I think they played well.”England arrived on Monday determined, if slightly offset by a virus that had affected Ollie Pope, Ben Foakes and Hartley. They charged through the opening session, with 127 runs ticked off the remaining 332 required at the start of play. The problem was the loss of five wickets.Two batters did their job. Rehan continued his cavalier Sunday night cameo into Monday morning, swinging, charging, and, on one occasion, gorgeously caressing through the off side before Axar trapped him lbw for 23. By then, Crawley had settled back into his groove, caressing his usual drives and tucks through midwicket, all while facing up to most of Bumrah’s initial five-over spell.Zak Crawley was out lbw just before lunch•Getty ImagesA well-executed charge and punch down the ground brought him an eighth boundary and a second half-century of the match. Three overs later, Pope picked the wrong ball from Ashwin to cut. It still required something special from Rohit Sharma, who obliged with a stunning reaction catch at first slip, shooting up his left hand like a kid in class who knows the answer before anyone else.And he did, to be fair, particularly by not wavering as Joe Root introduced some uncharacteristic maelstrom. An innings which perhaps showed just how serious the damage to his right little finger may be. He spent most of day three off the field after damaging it in the 13th over of India’s second innings.He reverse-swept his first ball for four, scuffed his third up and over the keeper attempting a similar shot, skipped down and planted Axar into the stands for six with his seventh and then survived a strong leg-before review against him on Umpire’s Call.An ugly hack off his 10th, aiming for cow corner but finding the hands of Axar at backward point, gave Ashwin career wicket number 499. And off Root went with 245 still to get. Usually the sherpa in the pursuit of such summits, coming to the crease boasting a fourth innings average of 120.00 under Stokes and Brendon McCullum, Root was already back at base camp with the team less than halfway up the mountain starting to consider chewing on their own feet.Joe Root was caught slogging•BCCIA stand between Crawley and Bairstow had reached 40 by the time Rohit made his best call of the morning. With 20 minutes before the break, Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav were reintroduced. In the space of five deliveries, Kuldeep had accounted for Crawley – an lbw achieved through a tight DRS call to overturn a “not out” decision on the field – before Bairstow was prised out by Bumrah to send us to an early lunch.Even with Stokes coming back out after lunch alongside an able facilitator in Foakes, the 205 on the table would always be a tough ask. Only 16 had been cleared when Stokes inexplicably got himself run out.A thick inside edge as Foakes pressed forward to Ashwin saw the ball roll into the vacant square leg region. The single was on, but Stokes approached it with leisure, watching it all the way into Shreyas Iyer’s hand before speeding up. A direct hit found him short by inches.”It was like one of those dreams where you’re trying to run faster but you can’t,” explained Stokes at stumps, still trying to square it with himself. “I knew I had to go faster, but for some reason, I just couldn’t. It was a really bizarre couple of seconds.”As it happened, the rest seemed to go pretty quickly despite stubborn resistance from Foakes and Hartley. An eighth-wicket partnership of 55 did bring about some anxiety in the stands, particularly when both batters exchanged sixes early in their stand.But in waltzed Bumrah once more, hoodwinking Foakes with a slower ball for a return catch, then knocking out Hartley’s off stump to seal an emphatic equalising win.”You don’t get any points losing by five, you don’t get less points losing by 100,” said Stokes, by way of justification of trying to get it done today rather than use more of the available time. Not that he or England needed an alibi.Their chasing record has taken a hit, but still an impressive 8 out of 11 successes under Stokes. What will sting is they have been bested over these four days by the weakest India XI they will face on this tour. Some of the big guns are due back for the final three, adding an extra layer of intrigue on to an already thrilling series.England now head to Abu Dhabi for a break, with little but rest and relaxation on the agenda. Focus will soon shift to going again in Rajkot, exactly like this.
