Cricket 2014
Indian Wipe Out
August 18th 2014
457, 391-9d, 295, 342, 330, 178, 152, 161, 148, 94
The final number in the sequence of Indian scores was even lower than the greatest (English) optimist could have hoped. It was though sadly inevitable after a chastening first hour in which only the slow over-rate saved India from the ignominy of conceding 100 runs to England’s tail. Things could have been even worse because both Broad and Root were wrongly given out while hammering the Indian attack at 9-an-over. It was no great surprise that even a significant rain delay could not allow India to reach Tea. 29.2 overs. 143 minutes and it was “thanks for the game”.
1815 runs for 49 wickets in the first five innings of the series, or 37.0 runs per wicket.
733 runs for 50 wickets in the last five innings of the series, or 14.7 runs per wicket.
Many people have pointed to the first ball of the 12th over of the first morning of the 3rd Test as the key moment of the series. Pankaj Singh bowled a ball just outside off to Alistair Cook, who edged a gentle catch to Ravi Jadeja at third slip. Jadeja floored it, England obtained their first 50 opening partnership since Melbourne and Alistair Cook scored a possibly career-saving 95.
Ravi Jadeja. Was his mind completely on the game? How distracted was he by events off the field? Would he have taken the catch had it not been for the fuss surrounding the incident with Jimmy Anderson? Was it just coincidence that India lost focus after that incident as England became fired-up?
Interestingly, since the low point of series defeat against Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankans have come close – just 2 wickets away – from sharing a series against South Africa and are on the pointing of whitewashing Pakistan 2-0. Maybe that defeat was not quite as bad as it seemed at the time? That last day of the series, although leading to a dispiriting loss, was also arguably the point when England started to pull out of their own crash dive with a rearguard action that almost saved the Test, although they still had a couple of desperately bad sessions at Lords.
Before the series you would have reckoned that one of the two under fire captains would not survive the series. A month ago the odds were against Alistair Cook seeing out the series but, without ever looking quite convincing, he has averaged 49.7 with 3x50. There are still questions about his captaincy and he has still gone 13 months since his last century, but he lives to fight another day. MS Dhoni, in contrast, despite 4x50, has averaged only 33.9 – less than you would want from your #6 – and has looked increasingly poor as a wicket-keeper and lost as a skipper: the hideous statistic of conceding 101 runs in 69 balls against the England tail, on top of the 67 runs in 61 balls that Root and Jordan had added the previous evening showed how much things were allowed to drift. 168 runs in 130 balls from the fall of the 7th wicket, 59 of them faced by England’s #9, 10 & 11. India must be wondering, however good MS Dhoni is in the short form of the game, if they would do better with a change of both wicket-keeper and captain.
Dhoni may go to Australia for the 3 Test series in December as captain on the grounds that there is no obvious alternative but, do the BCCI really want to risk a captaincy crisis in the light of a whitewash, as a prelude to the World Cup?
This series has also cemented a remarkable power shift in England v India Tests.
Since 2000 there have been 8 bilateral series.
· Between 2002 and 2008/9, there were 16 England v India Tests, in 5 series. India won 5 of the games, England 2, with 9 drawn. What is more, England failed to win any of the series, losing 3 and sharing 2.
· Since 2011, the power balance has tipped completely in the opposite direction, with England winning 9 and drawing 2 of the 13 Tests and winning all three series.
Despite angry denials, it is hard to avoid the suspicion that the advent of the IPL has brought on a change in mindset of Indian players. There is the opportunity to make millions in a format that does not explore techniques too severely, where a batsman can become a hero in half a dozen deliveries and where a bowler would rather have figures of 0-20 than 5-50, where slips are unheard of and seam movement and swing are discouraged lest they interrupt the flow of sixes over miniscule boundaries. Some players such as David Warner have shown that they can transfer skills successfully from T20 to Test cricket, but many more have built up inflated reputations based on a few overs of slogging whilst, at the same time, convincing themselves that they are rather special and that the basics do not matter.
India’s last five innings in the series have lasted 66.4 overs, 46.4 overs, 43 overs, 61.1 overs and 29.2 overs: 50 wickets in 247 overs, or a fraction over 8 sessions cricket. Just twice did they manage to survive the equivalent of two full sessions of play.
It was suggested that India did no better in 2011, with a team of experienced players but, even in the 4th Test, which they lost by an innings to complete the 4-0 whitewash, India batted 94 and 91 overs. India lost and lost badly and had a much weaker bowling attack in 2011, but did not suffer the complete meltdown of 2014.
Inevitably, there will be questioning of the worth of the England victory in the light of India’s feeble resistance. “Ah yes! But only two months ago you lost to Sri Lanka”. Strangely, no one made the remark that Australia’s victory last winter was of little value because England’s resistance was so feeble and Australia had lost to the same opponents only a few months earlier. It is hard to know how to value England’s win, as it is to value Australia’s win last winter. In terms of victory margins, England’s dominance at the end of the Indian series has been just as great and possibly even greater than Australia’s was over England. And, like Australia, the turnaround in fortunes after the Chester-le-Street Test, was just as great. Nothing can hide the Sri Lanka defeat and nothing should, but that was against a different, less confident, struggling England team, still trying to work out its identity, with young players still trying to find their feet at this level. Much has been made of the inexperience of the Indian side but, its average age was two years older than England’s (28 to 26).
England can get a lot better with experience, if the remaining weaknesses are addressed successfully and the young players improve with experience. Series against South Africa, Australia and Pakistan (ranked #1, #2 & #4 in the ICC Test rankings, as of yesterday) in the next year will test their mettle, hone or break techniques and give a real idea of where they stand. The Test rankings can change rapidly, as Australia have shown by climbing from mid-table to #1 in a single series, which means that England’s position in the table today may have changed a lot in 12 months. Today, England are at #3, 20 points behind South Africa and 19 behind Australia, with Pakistan losing substantial ground behind when Sri Lanka confirmed their 2-0 win against Pakistan this morning, which pushed Sri Lanka up to #4, 3 points behind England.
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