Cricket 2014
Can England do it this time?
July 29th 2014
Unless India produce something remarkable, at some point today England will register their first Test win since Chester-le-Street, eleven Tests ago. England have ridden their luck to be as dominant in this game as India were – after the first two sessions – for much of the game at Lords. At least so far in this game, England have finished the job when their opponents were on the ropes, rather than letting them off the floor to counterattack.
When India were 145-7 after two sessions at Lords and again when England were 211-4 in reply you would have bet on England turning a good position into a winning one. When India fell to 235-7, just over 200 ahead, you felt that the target would be a soft one but, each time, India came roaring back to knock the stuffing out of an opponent who went from thinking “I can’t believe that we are winning” to thinking “I knew that it was too good to be true”. The win for India, when it came, was rapid and deflating because, again, this was a game that England could and should have won. That is why England should not relax until the last Indian is dismissed today: the last three wickets have given England far more problems this summer than the top three, so it was such a pleasant surprise to see 313-7 become 331ao, with the last two wickets falling in quick time in the morning.
Yesterday, one famous TV analyst stated bluntly before play that England would not win. Maybe he was being fatalist to avoid hexing the side. Maybe he felt that, again, England would fall short. What was good was to see England following through when they had an opening. Some of the criticism has been brutal: not to enforce the follow-on was defensive, England would prod on for three sessions and let India escape, the declaration was too late, a two-man attack would never bowl India out, etc. Sometimes you wonder if some of the critics are watching the same match.
Although Chris Jordan was occasionally wild, he was also aggressive in a way that makes things happen, although not always at his end and is a superb slipper. Chris Woakes was tight and mean. The headlines have been for Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and, today, Moeen Ali who is growing in confidence and self-belief with the ball as he is shrinking with the bat , but the support bowlers did their job. Together Woakes and Jordan have bowled 47 overs so far in the Test and done a job for their side. Woakes topped 90mph in the first innings and has been the fastest bowler on either side in the second innings (although Mohammed Shami has bowled the fastest ball in the 2nd innings) – not bad for someone patronisingly described as a batsman who can bowl.
What was impressive was the intensity with little given away, even when India threatened to make a decent start. In Jimmy Anderson’s last over the six balls were all tightly clustered around the top of middle and leg – no width, no height, no relief.
It may be that those little signs of progress that we have seen through the summer will become clearer if England win today and that the last day at Headingley, where England so nearly pulled off a miraculous escape, will later been seen as the turning point in England’s fortunes. World-beaters, the side is not. Often unfairly maligned, it is.
However, to win, England’s bowlers have to get through Rahane, Sharma, Dhoni, Jadeja, Kumar and Shami, all of whom have proved hard to dislodge at times, before they get Pankat Singh, fast becoming a folk hero with the locals, in their sights. It is not impossible that India could get through the first session without losing a wicket and, if they do, England’s steel will be sorely tested.
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