Comeback dream ends as India fail to seize key moments
SOUTHAMPTON: The word ‘sinking’ is not used flippantly in the southern English town from where the Titanic set sail on her solitary voyage in 1912, but it perhaps best describes the feeling in Virat Kohli’s Indian cricket team after their dream of a grand comeback in the England Test series met with a bitter end on Sunday.
The world’s No 1 Test team crumbled — chasing a fourthinnings target of 245 on a dry, powdery pitch — to the offspin threat of Moeen Ali.
It was déjà vu for India as the bowler was recalled at a venue where he had grabbed eight wickets to hand India a defeat in 2014. On Sunday, he dismissed India’s two key batsmen, in-form Virat Kohli (58) and Ajinkya Rahane (51), ending their 101-run stand that had briefly promised to take the visitors to a famous overseas victory.
India came into the Test with hopes of levelling the series. They had defied predictions of a total rout by rallying from the loss of the first two Tests to win the third at Trent Bridge by 203 runs. Victory would have kept India on course to emulate Don Bradman’s 1936-37 Ashes side – the only team to come from 2-0 down to win a series 3-2.
But Kohli’s team paid the price of throwing away the advantage, and not taking their chances, too often during the game.
In the first innings, thelower order just had to support Cheteshwar Pujara (132 not out), but Hardik Pandya and R Ashwin tried to attack Moeen, which led to India getting only a 27-run lead before running out of batsmen.
While Moeen finished the Test with nine wickets, Ashwin could manage just three, bowling particularly off-colour on Saturday in helpful conditions for spin bowling during the England second innings. Nursing a groin injury coming into the Test, he could not hit his stride and ended up trying too many variations. India also seemed to miss a second spinner, in with left-arm Ravindra Jadeja, who is also a decent batsman.
In the chase, India’s opening pair of Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul struggled to tackle both pace and seam yet again. It was 22-3 when Kohli and Rahane came together, building a crucial partnership. But Kohli’s departure to make it 122 for four opened the floodgates. The new batsmen could not rotate the strike, which made Rahane more defensive than he needed to be, and led to his dismissal. India were finally bowled out for 184.