India vs England - Fourth test - 4th to 8th March 2021
Day 3 - Buoyant Team India go through to WTC Final
Pant's heroic cameo set the right direction for Team India going to Day 3. Washington Sundar was the last man standing and had no control on three wickets that tumbled down and to miss his century by a whisker. However the lead was sufficient enough to put England bat in their second innings.
The England top order completely lacked execution neither they were defensive nor attacked. The spin duo from India troubled in all ways. Bairstow came and went for another duck and this was a good example of rotation policy failure. The pandemic put the rotation policy in back foot and new players couldn't catchup with the momentum of other players in XI. I had mentioned in my earlier blogs, I would like to emphasise here as well. ECB must come up with the spin friendly wickets and do some changes in their domestic system to shape up players and prepare well for overseas tour. Rahul Dravid is a good inspiration that any country can take a leaf to encourage and grow the eco system of Cricket and players who can play any situation. A successful cricketer cannot just be domestic hero and an international zero. They need to be flexible to play the situation in any conditions warm, cold, spin and pace friendly wickets. England team was out of place and easily outplayed by India.
The sessions in test cricket are like turbulence period in a flight journey. The pilot and crew join together to steer the flight through the turbulence and safely navigate the journey. The mindset must be full of of grit, responsibility, patience and resilience to face up the situation. So should be the player and team's mindset to win sessions. Eventually a team need to get to the destination which is a win or draw to keep their morale high to make more such journeys.
Team India scored full marks with their all round performance and reached the WTC finals. A team that deserves without any question. Time and again they have silenced the media which pounced on them during adverse time. Ravi Shastri and his support team kept the team together in the bubble era providing encouragement and motivation to take them to close to victory and the team responded by winning it. The top order has definitely some issues but their high morale can self heal their woes with some more adjustments.
The test tour focus is now to play WTC finals against Kiwis and then against England in England. Virat Kohli's bucket list will definitely eye for win in England as a top of the list item. The seam and pace attack of Team India is world class and will fight until the last ball of any match. If batters do well in England, it can definitely be another series in their bag for Team India.
Thanks for reading my blog. I will be publishing a video blog soon. I can't thank enough for all the encouragement and motivation you all have given me.
Day 2 - Young guns from Team India....firing resilience
The first sign of England fight back was very evident during the first session of the play. The Indian top order was quickly wiped out with Virat's duck, the cherry on the cake. India was in a precarious situation by lunch and a lot was expected out from the hitman Rohit, the lone survivor from the top order.
After a while, the swagger of the bat Mr. Pant and another young gun Washington joined to play a beautiful innings of 100+ runs partnership. The resilience and temperament just fired some positivity for Team India and the body language of English bowlers went downhill. The valour of youngster Pant was portrayed in his reverse flick of Anderson to boundary of a new ball. In my opinion, it is a dream shot of the batsman. If we see the diced up view of Pant's match saving innings not just in this match, there is a pattern where he plays a defence approach and an accelerated phase. So far, the opponents found very difficult to decode his mindset of the game. This is a smart cricket thinking from the young man in combination with his physical skill.
Washington Sundar did just few long walks to the centre last match and nothing much. He has never played first-class long format matches and to come straight into test cricket performing at this level is magnificent. All his accumulated energy was applied today with a concoction of resilience, temperament, patience and cracking shots. It will be no surprise if he scores a ton tomorrow.
At the end of the day, Team India applied the process just marking the steps of the process with a check/tick in the box at every stage of it.
India has a big advantage. England team has a small window of opportunity as the pitch is a bating wicket and they can score big in the second innings to challenge Team India.
From Day 3 through to Day 5, it is a game for someone who take the opportunity in their hands.
Day 1 - Bamboozled Indian Spin Attack
The wicket was flat and it was a good toss to win by England. The team selection for England to go with just three full time bowlers was a surprise. Lawrence to replace Broad was not apples to apples replacement. The intention was clear to overcome the long tail of the England team. But not completely sure if a bowler can be scarified for that reason. India's team selection was as expected with just Siraj replacing Bumrah.
Once again this test series, consistent spin attack was overwhelming for England team reducing them to 205. For the first time in the last five innings England collectively scored 200 runs in an innings. In my earlier blogs, I mentioned about resting Bairstow (rotation policy) during the early part of the tour was not a good idea as he is a very good player against spin attack. Bairstow finally gained the momentum back at par with the team to take them out of dire straits with Stokes at the other end.
Stokes played a positive cricket knocking couple of sixes as well and it was a well deserved 50. All others gave a good try playing front foot and back foot. It was too much for England team to handle spin attack. The pitch is not the problem but the batting and being less resilient was the reason for the downfall.
India is in an advantage position. If they continue with the same grit, they can put on a good first innings score and then attack England in the second innings to wrap the series 3-1.
All we hope is this match go to fourth or fifth day. This is in the hands of England team whether they can fight their way back and earn some credibility to close the series. For the spirit of cricket, no pundits or media should cling to the pitch blaming game which is a non-existent tale of soft corner towards a team.
Preview
The England team's struggle against the spin attack went from bad to worse in the third test. The irreparable is not their technical aspects from the team but the negative condemnation by a small segment of English cricket pundits and the English media.
In my opinion, the criticism was put as a case basically on two factors. The geographical location where the test was played and undermining the spin attack by relating it to the sub-standard twenty two yards as a home team's ploy. I want to touch on few reality check from the yesteryears.
In August 2019, England was bundled out cheaply for 67 runs at Leeds against Australia. The Macho man effort of pace bowlers was greatly appreciated with no criticism about the pitch or weather conditions that helped bowlers. Was it taken for granted that the pitch prepared in England are of default high standards and the credit always go to the players skill? Eventually that test ended with dust settled on a winning note for England and it was considered as pitch perfect. This is supported by the domination of pace friendly wickets in the western part of world and we are all mesmerised by the speed and power. The preparation of spin friendly wicket was forgotten and due to which England team is suffering overseas.
The second factor, the undermining of the spin bowler's skill, talented revs, smart cricket mindset and variations of spin. These facts are overshadowed by just one factor stating that the pitch was a minefield and to their advantage. Instead of celebrating Ashwin's 400 wickets milestone, a question was asked to Ashwin about the pitch conditions in the post match press conference. For this matter even Root's five wickets haul of his genuine off-spin was directed at the pitch being poor. The real problem there was Dom Bess not selected and Root had to bowl those disruptor overs showcasing his talent with the ball. I take this opportunity to Congratulate Root.
Have you ever seen any cricket pundit complaining the weather for any debacle to have a soft corner towards a team? Would the argument of such kind hold water? Let us go for another reality check. India played New Zealand in the Semi Finals of the World Cup in 2019. The weather was very bad and the match was rescheduled to the next day. In the over cast conditions, the Indian batters folded against Trent Boult pace attack. Is it fair to say that the game should have been played only on a sunshine day being a Semi-Final? As weather is natural to the earth, the pitch is natural to Cricket. Stay calm, play Cricket, improve skill and repeat the same.
When I go for a long walk in England, I need to wear a rain jacket or carry an umbrella to avoid a drench. Similarly, England team must be more prepared in technique to embrace spin bowling when touring sub-continent. ECB should seriously use all the latest techniques to produce a dry spin pitch at home and play more matches to master the technique. However it turns out to be a forgotten incident when the team leave sub-continent and pace wicket are considered as pride. A player from a lost side will clearly be focussing on the improvement that he needs to make and will not be counting on the pitch criticism support which they receive from the outside. England team can gain confidence practicing in sub-continent like pitches at home to have the mindset in the right direction for sub-continent tours.
The fourth test is another fantastic opportunity for England to bring out their skills and to show patience, temperament and resilience to end the test tour on a positive note. The year of "Perseverance" is the inspiration they may apply and play positive cricket to spin a magical ending to their woes of India tour.
India will stick to the process and nothing more. In the recent past, Team India have proven the effectiveness of their process by applying resilience and temperament to get over the line time and again.
In my opinion, it will be another spin track for the fourth and final encounter. The batters with grit to play front and back foot against world class spinners from both the teams will stand out.
Good luck to the spirit of Cricket. We fans will all be in it together.
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