On a high after Lord’s Test victory, India win toss, elect to bat, get bowled out for 78
KOLKATA: There are still four days left in this Test. And if England bat once and big, at least two more complete innings are left.
India should score considerably more than 78 next innings because, well, lightning doesn’t strike twice at the same place. But this should hurt, this thoughtless display on a brown Day 1 Headingley pitch that prompted Virat Kohli to bat after winning his first toss in eight Tests in England.
With six single-digit scores, three ducks and just two batsmen reaching double figures, India conceded within 41 overs every scrap of advantage they had painfully garnered over the last two Tests. The series is now well and truly alive, just when it was thought England were at their tipping point.
James Anderson again played chief saboteur, removing KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli with deliveries they love and dread, inducing edges when they should have ideally been left alone, in a lively spell of 8-5-6-3.
Ollie Robinson, Sam Curran and Craig Overton then swiftly moved in to kill any hope of resurgence with India’s top five edging to Jos Buttler, a record.
The only patch of resistance came in the form of a 35-run fourth-wicket stand between Ajinkya Rahane and opener Rohit Sharma but it inspired little confidence. India were never really in the thick of it. And you know it when Rahane manages to make Rohit’s batting look painstaking. Add to that the decision to persist with a misfiring Ishant Sharma despite a nine-ball opening over and holding back Mohammed Siraj—india’s match-winner at Lord’s—till the 18th over. This surely doesn’t feel like a series where India are still leading 1-0.
This is the predicament this India team tends to create, asking to strap on the seatbelts and hold on to dear life as it takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions. All out for 36 in Adelaide. Then a rip-roaring win at MCG. Almost down and out in Sydney. Then a miracle at Gabba. Lording it at Lord’s. And then imploding for 78, their ninth lowest Test score ever, and third lowest in England, after 42 (Lord’s, 1974) and 58 (Old Trafford, 1952).
In the space of eight months, India have twice renewed the list of their 10 lowest Test scores while stitching stupendous wins.