England v India: 1st Test, Day 5 - Cook too Conservative to Exploit Another Indian Batting Collapse

 

England v India: 1^st Test, Day 5

Cook too Conservative to Exploit Another Indian Batting Collapse

November 13^th 2016

There was a body of opinion that suggested that with only 3 days between the 1^st and 2^nd Test England should bat out time and not even make a token declaration to rest their bowlers because there was no chance of getting a result. There was a minority view that stated that given how the two teams had handled the conditions, England had a real chance of forcing the win if their bowlers were given enough time.

It was the latter view that was proven correct.

Probably England did not deserve to win having delayed their declaration so much but, even so, had a couple of chances been snaffled – one of them not difficult – India could easily have lost. India were set a notional 310 from 49 overs on a pitch where 210 from 49 overs would have been a big challenge.

After another 75 overs of England’s batsmen scoring at their pleasure against the Indian spinners, it was a completely different match when India batted. Any thoughts that Indian fans may have had of their side chasing were rudely shattered after 12 balls when Chris Woakes left India 0-1, with the first runs not coming until the 24^th ball of the innings.

Even though the runs were accumulating, there was no sense of permanence: 22-1, Vijay was dropped by Ansari off a difficult caught and bowled; 31-1, Pujara was dropped by Broad off Ansari – a much easier chance; 43-1, Moeen Ali completed defeated Vijay’s forward push, but the ball caught his back pad; 44-1, Adil Rashid beat everything with a big leg-spinner. While Pujara can feel unfortunate that when the finger went up for LBW it was to a ball pitching outside leg, even if he was pinned bang in front (no need to say that the umpire was Dhamasena), the decision was probably given on the grounds of quality control.

By that time it was all too little, too late. Even though India lost 8 wickets in 30 overs to crash to defeat in the 3^rd Test in 2006 (Andrew Flintoff and Shaun Udal combined for 20.2-7-28-7 in that innings), there was never a sense here that the win was imminent, even when Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali took wickets in consecutive overs to leave India 71-4 with 25 overs left. That though left the obdurate Kohli and Ashwin together and they were calm and took time out of the game. When England needed to take one of the two quickly they  took the score up to 118-5 when Ashwin had a rush of blood and gifted his wicket to Ansari who, soon after, bowled a ball at Kohli that turned hugely.

Even then there was just a chance of inducing a panic, but it needed Kohli to fall. The only batsman to go though was Saha who bunted the ball gently back to Adil Rashid to make it 132-6 with 26 minutes left. At that point Rashid had 3-37 in the innings, slightly superior to Ashwin’s 3-230 in the match.

Take-aways from the match?

India were out-batted and, more seriously, out-bowled.

·         India’s three spinners took 9-521 against an inexperienced batting line-up that supposedly had no idea how to play spin.

·         England’s three spinners took 13-433 against the self-confessed masters of playing spin bowling.

·         The least successful of England’s spin trio (Moeen Ali) took 3-132 in the match.

·         The most successful of India’s spin trio (Ravi Jadeja) took 3-133 in the match.

Reports say that the pitch at Visakhapatnam will be a big turner and that the side winning the Toss is likely to win the match. On this showing, India may have more to fear than England if there is real help for the bowlers.

Either way, the series will not now end 5-0 and India’s trumpeting the draw as a demonstration of how far their side has come shows how relieved they are at not going 1-0 down.

England v India: 1st Test, Day 4 - India’s Collapse Sets Up Last Day

 

England v India: 1^st Test, Day 4

India’s Collapse Sets Up Last Day

November 12^th 2016

At 318-2, moments before the Close on Day 3, the talk was of India pushing on to a huge score and putting England under real pressure on the last day. Two wickets in four balls before the Close gave England a window of opportunity, although one of them was the nightwatchman. Realistically, England needed two wickets in the first hour and they got them. What is more, they were the prize wickets of Rahane and Kohli: the former to Ansari, the latter to Adil Rashid, neither of whom will have given the Indian batsmen many sleepless nights before the series.

After a superb summer in ODIs and an excellent ODI series in Bangladesh, in which he was the main wicket-taking threat, the Bangladesh Tests were not kind to Adil Rashid, who was in danger of making the transition from being a figure of fun to a figure of ridicule. Four wickets in the second innings of the defeat in Bangladesh though seem to have worked wonders for his self-belief; it matters nought that a couple of those wickets were to rank bad balls – the important thing is that wickets give confidence. Almost without anyone noticing, Adil Rashid now has 19 wickets in five and a half Tests: a pretty decent strike rate and a wicket every 70 balls. Similarly, Zafar Ansari had a really rough introduction to Test cricket, but then came back with a couple of good wickets and those have seemed to work wonders for his confidence too.

At the same time, it seems that Alistair Cook is beginning to handle his spinners with more sympathy and empathy. Even when one of the bowlers was hit for a six – and India hit seven of them to England’s five – Cook did not panic and kept faith: having runs in the bank undoubtedly helped.

The result is that India’s three spinners have generated little threat and have so far taken 6-435 in the match. England’s three have combined for 8-276 against arguably a stronger batting line-up.

318-2 became 361-6, with India just past the follow-on: just the sort of mini-collapse that suggests that the last day might get really interesting. India were indebted to the 7^th and 10^th wicket partnerships to get close because 425-6 then became 459-9 in another mini-collapse.

A lead of 49 was at least 50 less than England had hoped. The feeling was that at that stage only India could win. There were plenty of people – and not just Indians – who expected an England collapse and a modest chase on the last day. What has happened is just the opposite: 114-0 at the Close, with Hameed 62* and looking set for a debut century. He is only the third England batsman to score a Test 50 before turning 20 – the last was Denis Compton in 1937 – and one really does wonder why he did not play at least the 2^nd Test in Bangladesh.

England are 163 ahead and looking at a declaration around Lunch. If anyone wonders how the pitch is playing, the last ball of the day pitched in the rough outside leg and flew past the outside edge of Hameed’s bat. Balls from the spinners are pitching on a good length and taking off to chest height. There is plenty of evidence that a bowler could run through a side if he gets the breaks and a bit of luck.

England have made such a solid start that they can afford to take some risks in the morning session. There is also plenty of forcing batting to come. A chase of 280 in around 65 overs would be very interesting with the pitch only likely to get more difficult. Certainly, if England entertain thoughts of winning, they really must have taken an Indian wicket by Lunch, which means giving the bowlers 4 or 5 overs at the Indian openers.

England v India: 1st Test, Day 3 - Odds on a Draw?

 

England v India: 1^st Test, Day 3

Odds on a Draw?

November 11^th 2016

To look at the pitch one would expect it to be difficult. It is a strange mottled colour with plenty of green, especially around the centre and a crazy paving of cracks. Yet so far it has produced 846 runs for 14 wickets, with several of the wickets falling as batsmen tried to force the pace.

There are plenty who think that England’s 537 was at least 60 under par and for a large part of the day India made the prospect of getting a healthy first innings lead and giving England an unpleasant final afternoon a real possibility. It may yet happen, but the impressive discipline of the England attack has made it quite unlikely unless something very strange happens tomorrow.

Broad and, more surprisingly for most, Adil Rashid, went for under 3 an over. Chris Woakes has the extraordinary figures of 23-5-39-0. Of the three front-line spinners used by India, only Jadeja had better economy than the England trio. Although India batted through the afternoon session without losing a wicket, just 63 runs accrued from 29 overs, ending any thoughts that India might have had of taking the lead by Lunch tomorrow.

While India had two centurions, one was scoring at a strike rate of just over 40 – in fact, all the Indian batsmen bar Pujara have scored at around 40 – and neither went on to the big hundred that India needed. Better still, two wickets in the last 4 balls on the day have changed the look of the scoreboard. It is still very good for India who will need to play very badly to lose from here, but a wicket for Adil Rashid to an excellent googly, followed by one to Zafar Ansari, who took just two balls to remove the nightwatchman. Both Ansari and Adil Rashid needed the confidence boost, as did Haseeb Hameed, who had missed one quite gettable chance earlier, but took these two, sharp opportunities that have opened a window of opportunity for England. India are still 218 behind and a lead of 100 is still possible for England. If they can get it, we could still be in for an interesting last day because, surely, the pitch will deteriorate on Day 4. Were a couple of wickets to fall in the first hour, India might just start to get nervous.

England v India: 1st Test, Day 2 - Let the Spin Begin!

 

England v India: 1^st Test, Day 2

Let the Spin Begin!

November 10^th 2016

There is some frantic spin going on in India, but not from the Indian attack. How is it that when some deliveries were turning prodigiously on the second day that England scored over 500 when India bowled just three balls short of 100 overs of spin with the best bowler in the world among their attack? How could India miss at least six chances in the field? How could it been that five of England’s wickets were gifted to the bowlers rather than earned? Who is the imposter who has turned up claiming to be Ravi Ashwin? Many fans seem to have come to the premature conclusion that the pitch is a road and are wondering why they should offer such a pitch when England give them spiteful minefields to play on.

England will undoubtedly encounter worse pitches during this tour but, as an exercise in confidence-building, it has been wonderful therapy. We do not know if England have resolved their issues with quality spin because they faced very little of it. However, you can argue that India were not given the chance to bowl well. When England bowled, Moeen Ali immediately obtained more turn than Ravi Ashwin and Adil Rashid showed why England persist with him by bowling a magical googly that missed everything.

How good the pitch is, is open to question. There is some grass. There are some big cracks. The odd ball is turning disconcertingly. And the odd ball has produced an alarming puff of dust. It all suggests that if the bowler puts the ball in the correct place and is patient, batting may not look so easy by the fourth day. It is not hard to see how, if England bowl well, take their chances and get a bit of the rub of the green, they could roll India over for around 300.

For England to win, Alistair Cook is going to have to show confidence in his bowlers. When Adil Rashid plays ODIs under Eoin Morgan, Morgan knows that he will usually get an economical spell plus a couple of wickets. In contrast, Alistair Cook’s theory that a bowler should be taken off after conceding a boundary does nothing for the bowler’s confidence. The result is that the Adil Rashid of ODIs is a go-to bowler who turns matches and the Adil Rashid of Tests is a go-away bowler (as in “go away, I don’t trust you with the ball”). When things start to go Adil Rashid’s way, as they did that afternoon in the UAE, he is capable of bowling a spell that turns a match.

England’s advantage is that they have six bowlers of very different styles and talents to turn to. Stokes is an aggresive reverse swing specialist, while Woakes specialises in seam and normal swing and Broad can get some sharp lift at around 90mph. The three spinners are three different styles, with Moeen as the typical English off-spinner, Zafar Ansari as a slow left armer and Adil Rashid able to turn his leg spin both ways: it gives Alistair Cook options and, if he gets stuck, an over or two of Joe Root can sometimes produce a wicket from nowhere. If there is something in the pitch, one of the bowlers should be able to find it.

Of course, cricket is not an exact science. England may turn up and bowl like drains. India may bat like a million dollars and just be too good. It may be 400-3 at the Close tomorrow with India looking to get a lead and put England under pressure on the last day, but you feel that if a wicket falls early, India could be dismissed for around 300. One thing that should encourage England is that, so far, Moeen Ali and Zafar Ansari have combined for figures of 9-2-9-0; apart from one loose ball from Adil Rashid, the Indian openers have had few scoring opportunities.

England v India: 1st Test, Day 1, Surprise!

 

England v India: 1^st Test, Day 1

Surprise!

November 9^th 2016

Last night was the night of surprises. Hilary Clinton was supposed to have Donald Trump on toast and India were supposed to have the 1^st Test all but won by the time that Trump had dried his tears. Things did not go quite as the pundits had predicted so confidently, either in the USA or in India.

A week ago the press was panicking on all cylinders and the Indian media and fans were happily predicting a 5-0 win for India despite the fact that India have never won more than two Tests in a home series. Undoubtedly, some of the more radical Indian fans were bemoaning the fact that there was not a Sixth Test to make the score 6-0.

What a difference a week makes.

England did indeed make the change to the top four that I had suggested and have paired Moeen Ali with Zafar Ansari. The only slight surprise is that Adil Rashid is preferred to the steadier Gareth Batty. The result of the batting shake-up was that the 30-3 starts of Bangladesh became a 102-3 start, with the increased momentum that that brings. This time, the middle order had something to build on instead of trying to salvage something from the wreckage. It meant also that Joe Root and Moeen Ali were playing against a softening ball and without six men around the bat.

India also made life hard for themselves with their selection. Having just two seamers is fine, but when one of them is injured and the spinners are not generating much threat, you cannot easily take the new ball when you desperately need a breakthrough because your only seamer has already bowled 19 overs and there is no seamer to support him at the other end. Yadav is a fine bowler and is far removed from the old days when Mohinder Armanath or Eknath Solkar would bowl a couple of overs with the new ball at a gentle pace to take some shine off the ball for the spinners: Yadav generates plenty of threat, but he cannot bowl at both ends and come on as first change. In contrast, England’s three seamers allow one to have a bad day and still give the captain the option of maintaining some control in the field if there is nothing in the pitch for the spinners.

Some things have come home to roost. India believed that just picking three spinners would in itself be sufficient. Indian fans boasted that Ravi Ashwin would destroy England – he may yet do it – but, after one day, his bowling average against England is threatening to climb over 50 again (currently it is 49.8 and rising). The Indian side looked short on energy and bereft of ideas and owed two of its four wickets to substantial slices of luck: Alistair Cook would have been given not out had he reviewed his LBW, while Joe Root was given out to a catch that many fans disputed, although it would have been harsh on India had Root escaped (mind you, Yadav would be advised to ensure that he has a firm grip on the ball next time before trying to throw it up in celebration).

Another was the rather bizarre and utterly premature suggestions by some England fans on feedback during the Bangladesh series that Joe Root’s place should be under threat after only managing 2x50 in his last 4 Tests (this says more about the short memories and ridiculously critical attitude of fans than of their cricketing knowledge). A wonderful century and a big partnership with Moeen Ali, who seems to get better and better by the Test, has put India under the cosh. Root’s last six Tests have brought 254, 71*, 3, 62, 26, 39, 40, 1, 56, 1 & 124. Moeen Ali’s last six Tests have, so far, brought 482 runs at 68.9 and 20 wickets at 33.5 and fans still question his place!

England may yet find a way to lose this Test, but India’s faith that they will win the series without breaking sweat is already beginning to be shaken. That though will be for naught if all today’s hard work is wasted should 311-4 tonight becomes 330-8 within half an hour in the morning. England have to get greedy and push past 400 and, if possible, past 480 tomorrow, allowing Alistair Cook to set attacking fields and not to worry if Moeen or Adil Rashid get hit for a couple of boundaries: both have their best chances of taking wickets when over-confident batsmen are taking liberties. It will also send the strongest possible message that England are no pushovers if Moeen too can get a big century in a total around 500.

England v Bangladesh: Postscript - Where do we go from here? Lessons from recent history

 

England v Bangladesh: Postscript

Where do we go from here? Lessons from recent history

November 6^th 2016

Back in 1980, as an England side in turmoil faced the West Indies, with no one giving a squad that included players of the class of Boycott, Gooch, Gower, Botham, Willis and Willey any chance of avoiding defeat, Geoff Boycott suggested that one way of beating the West Indies might be to make them overconfident. Indian fans share with their Australian counterparts a feeling that the natural order of the world makes their team superior to others, particularly to their former colonial masters. Even before defeat in Bangladesh, Indian fans were convinced that this series would end up in a 5-0 victory: if they were confident beforehand, one shudders to think what they feel now. Maybe England’s most effective tactic is to make the Indians overconfident so that the edge is off their game? There is some evidence that that is just what happened in England’s last tour in 2012.

There are a lot of parallels with England’s last tour of India in 2012/13. England had just come off a dire performance against South Africa. They lost the series 2-0, with both defeats heavy ones. Andrew Strauss resigned at the end of the series. And the whole side was questioned. So confident were India in England’s inability to play spin that they played three specialist spinners in a four-man attack. Add to that the fact that after India made 521-8d in the 1^st Test, England had replied by staggering to 30-3 (sounds familiar?), ended up with 191 and followed-on a mere 330 behind at Tea on Day 3. India’s spinners took 9 of the 10 wickets.

You get a picture of an utter shambles of a side, clueless against the opposition bowlers. Ojha’s 5-45 sliced through the brittle England batting and the one Indian seamer (Zaheer Khan) was treated with exaggerated respect. Nick Compton made 9 and 37 on his debut. On the same pitch on which India’s three spinners had combined for 9-139, England’s three managed 7-265. It was pretty brutally one-sided. Even if, thanks to a good start second time around and a huge innings from the captain, England entered the last day at 340-5, 11 ahead and looking at an unlikely draw, with a side that batted right down to #10, a collapse on the final morning ended things mercifully quickly. If India were confident before the series, half way through the 1^st Test they must have been utterly convinced that the series would be a gentle stroll.

Of course, history records that England made a strategic change in the balance of the side for the 2^nd Test. In came Monty Panesar. England played just two seamers, one of whom (Stuart Broad) had a nightmare and won the 2^nd and 3^rd Tests by big margins. The 2^nd Test scorecard must be the most unusual England bowling figures for decades: a token 4 overs from Jimmy Anderson with the new ball in the 2^nd innings and then Monty and Graeme Swann bowled unchanged. By the end of the series it was Team India in deep crisis.

What was the difference? One was that the England attack was better balanced: Graeme Swann was relatively ineffective in the 1^st Test but, in the 2^nd Test he was paired with Monty Panesar who could, at times, be relatively expensive but, together, they formed a dangerous pairing. Far more important though was the way that the batsmen started to play positively and make scores that gave Swann and Monty something to defend. The effort was led by Cook, who made a century in each of the first three Tests, but Pietersen, Bell and Trott all made big centuries too, while Root, Prior, Compton and Swann all contributed 50s. Eight batsmen averaged over 30 for the series. England do not have a spin pairing of the class of Swann and Monty – who remembers that Samit Patel played in 3 of the 4 Tests, but bowled just 41 overs, almost all of them in the 1^st Test and took just a solitary wicket? – but you can make the most effective possible pairing of what you do have. For England that may well be the off-spin of Moeen Ali (a much better spinner than the critics would have us believe and coming nicely into form) combined with the slow left arm of Zafar Ansari, backed up by some steady overs of Gareth Batty.

England opened with the dour debutant, Nick Compton partnering Alistair Cook, producing partnerships of 26, 123, 66, 58*, 165, 4, 3 & 48. The explosive Kevin Pietersen played at #4. Maybe we should pair Cook and Hameed and move Duckett down the order? England have the squad that they have. This is no moment for panic and emergency call-ups: you show faith in the players who have been selected and hope that they repay that faith. What you can do is maximise how effectively you use your resources. That may be something like:

Cook, Hameed, Root, Duckett, Bairstow, Stokes, Moeen, Woakes, Ansari, Batty & Broad

England v Bangladesh: 2nd Test, 3rd Day - Humiliating

 

England v Bangladesh: 2^nd Test, 3^rd Day

Humiliating

October 30^th 2016

Well done Bangladesh!

Oh, England! What have you done?