India playing second fiddle despite dominant day at Lords, as errors, non-traditional dismissals, another collapse came through.
New day, same old troubles as India playing catch-up despite superior show.
We hit the halfway mark of the series during refreshments in the middle session, in case you forgot that the last session of the day is always longer. After two days and one and a half Test matches, India had amassed 2139 runs and claimed 41 wickets, averaging 52.17 runs per over at a scoring rate of 4.17. At 42.29 apiece and 4.21 per over, they had taken 45 wickets while giving up 1903 runs. They had only bowled 452.5 overs while holding England in the field for 513 overs.
Usually, this level of domination is sufficient to win a Test series. And since India had performed better on control numbers, one could argue that it should have performed better on these numbers as well.
Even if England has a reasonable amount of luck, you would still anticipate India to lead England at the midway point of the series. Rather, the series score was 1-1, with England scoring 387 all out against India’s 290 for 5 in the first innings of this Test. Given that they had to bat last on what began as an ageing surface during one of the hottest Test matches ever at Lord’s, India somehow managed to be only just level, playing catch-up.
Following their promise to not give wickets in the wake of the Headingley defeat, where they suffered collapses of 7 for 41 and 6 for 31 to bowling that didn’t ask for them, India made their most recent mistake. At Edgbaston, they made the necessary adjustments, held England on the field for 234 overs, and tied the series.
India batted with similar tenacity at Lord’s, establishing themselves in strong positions with a 141-run partnership between KL Rahul and the injured Rishabh Pant, but they discovered a new, sly method to allow England to regain the lead.
Rahul began the last over before lunch on 97, got a short and wide ball, but cut it straight to the sweeper. Rahul had never reached two hundreds in a series.
Pant, Rahul’s non-striker, was even more let down. Rahul’s century appeared to be more important to him. On the stump mic, he said, “It was a bad ball, deserved four.” Rahul claimed to have gone for it but was caught by the fielder.
Rahul calmly handled the bouncer bombardment that England had thrown at them for the entire session, while Pant, despite having to tend to his injured digit, was a little more interesting. A quick single, the Ben Stokes juju, and a milestone jeopardy then combined to create a three-way nightmare.
Imagine trying to avoid falling behind in the series midway through while playing the better cricket throughout. India was 133 down when Nitish Kumar Reddy joined Ravindra Jadeja.
At this moment, Jadeja is the ideal man to see. Don’t double take, please. He is the Indian lineup’s most traditional batter. India didn’t appreciate the serenity Jadeja should have introduced for the next thirty minutes or so.
Amazingly, India managed to prevent any runouts. The Headingley lesson need not be the most severe of all. The calmness of Jadeja took control.
Then the juju hit again, this time with ascendency in sight. England had, unsurprisingly, bowled wide and dry for a while. The new ball had been seen off, and India may have begun to consider pressing the issue when Jadeja tickled one down the leg side. India had squandered another chance to make losing this Test unlikely after yet another non-traditional dismissal and collapse.
India’s batting average at the end of the day was 48.6 at 3.97 per over, while England’s was 42.33 at 4.19 per over. Despite this, England led the series 1-1 and had all of their second-inning wickets in hand in the third Test. With temperatures rising both in the air and on the pitch, India will be counting the costs of their small errors here and there.