KOHLLAPSE AGAIN
Robinson blows away India as England wins by innings and 76 runs
Pacer Ollie Robinson engineered a middle-order collapse with the second new ball as England completed a facile innings and 76-run victory against India on the fourth day of the third Test, here on Saturday.
All the good work on Friday, when India reached 215 for two at stumps, was completely undone as Robinson (5 for 65) and James Anderson (1 for 63) hit the right lengths and got movement off-the pitch to wrap up the Indian innings in a jiffy.
India was all out for 278 in the morning session. It was a match that England won by executing its strategies to perfection with an idea of opposition’s soft underbellies. It was Robinson’s second fivefor in the series and the tall seamer, after a difficult initiation to Test cricket due to off-field controversies, is proving to be an asset for this team.
India skipper Virat Kohli said that it was high quality bowling from England that forced mistakes from the visiting batsmen.
“It is quite bizarre, it can happen in this country, batting collapses. We thought that the pitch was good to bat on, coming on nicely. But the discipline forced mistakes and the pressure was relentless. It is difficult to cope when you are not scoring runs. That caused the batting order to crumble,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation.
A huge first innings lead of 354 taken by England only increased the worry with three days of batting needed to save the game.
It was an improbable task to bat out three days in conditions which can change rapidly to make batting difficult. The middle-order, which looked solid on Friday, was completely rattled on the penultimate morning under bright sunshine.
Most of the India batsmen didn’t know where their off-stump was, which was pretty baffling if one takes the third day’s performance into consideration. India lost eight wickets for the addition of only 63 runs and the memories of a morning collapse in Adelaide once again became fresh as good balls found their way either into the gloves or hands of slip fielders.
It started with No.3 Cheteshwar Pujara (91 off 189 balls) misjudging the length of Robinson’s in-cutter, which he perhaps thought would fly over the stumps as he decided not to offer a shot.
There was still hope for a fight as skipper Kohli clipped Anderson for two boundaries en route to his first fifty of the series.
But Robinson then decisively tilted the game with a nicely pitched up delivery that was slightly angled in and Kohli jabbed at it. For the fifth consecutive time in the series, a catch offered by Kohli was gobbled up either by the wicketkeeper or the slip cordon.
Brief scores: India 78 & 278 in 99.3 overs (C Pujara 91, R Sharma 59, V Kohli 55, O Robinson 5/65, C Overton 3/47) lost to England 432