On a high after Lord’s Test victory, India win toss, elect to bat, get bowled out for 78
Keeper Buttler bags five catches as Kohli’s men are all out for 78, their lowest score in England since 1974
LEEDS: Winning the toss for the first time in the last nine tests against England was the only thing that went right for India on Wednesday. The batting line-up of the Virat Kohliled team collapsed for 78 – its ninth lowest total in Test cricket — in 40.4 overs in the face of some high-class seam and swing bowling by England at Headingley.
It was India’s third lowest test score against England, and came after a handing the hosts a thumping loss in the second test at Lord’s.
With six single-digit scores, three ducks and just two batsmen reaching double figures, India conceded every scrap of advantage they had painfully garnered over the last two Tests. The series is now well and truly alive, just when everyone 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. 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. 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.
This does not feel like a series where India are still leading 1-0.
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.
Middle disorder
This is not as humiliating as 36 all out in Adelaide. But when you go over the list and find some of the other record low scores coming once in 5, 10, 13 or even 21 years, you start wondering if somewhere India is not getting it right. They are not. India’s batting, especially their vaunted middle-order, has been deflecting scrutiny with the help of their bowlers for some time now. But there comes a time when nothing really can save them.
And trust Anderson to make you pay. Rested and calm after the verbal jousting in the last Test, Anderson just focused on pitching the ball further up than at Lord’s and Nottingham. It works wonders at Headingley, even when the pitch looks devoid of grass. Home boy Joe Root was not entirely unhappy after losing the toss. And India knew why when Rahul was drawn into driving Anderson first over. Three overs later, Pujara poked at an out-swinger after being set up by Anderson’s in-swingers.
A wild drive
Then came the turn of Kohli, lured into a wild drive against a ball just straightening after pitching, prompting a celebratory sprint from Anderson that most 39-year-olds can only dream of.
He was unrelenting with his swing and seam, line and length, persistence and discipline, sowing doubts among the batsmen that triggered an astonishing downfall even though he never came back for a second spell.
Rohit was in a different zone though, willing to bide his time. Balls on good length or slightly shorter didn’t bother him as he kept leaving them, trusting the bounce of the pitch. Slightly fuller and he was forced to play but England just didn’t put enough balls in that area. So Rohit kept blocking and leaving, watching his mates come and go with alarming regularity.
The biggest peril of such an approach is that run accumulation goes for a toss. Rohit, at times, just didn’t look eager to rotate the strike. And that was
bound to hurt.
The shot selection was equally shocking. Rahane threw away what he was accumulating through hard work, hanging his bat at Robinson’s stifling delivery in the corridor.
Pant fails to impress
Pant surprised with his predictability. Bottom hand coming off the handle a tad earlier, yawning gaps between body and bat during impact of the ball—these are but some of the allowances Pant has earned because of his cavalier approach to overturn the course of a match. It seems all fine when he is in full flow. But a few low scores and you start noticing the problems. England has possibly worked him out for this series.
A minute after Robinson induced an edge off Pant’s bat with a back of the length ball surfaced a graphic on TV showing all four of his dismissals this series to deliveries pitching at the same length, straight down the stumps.
The pitch isn’t bad. That has
been more than adequately proved by England with their first hundred-run stand of this series not involving Root. Openers Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed did what Rahul and Rohit did brilliantly till Lord’s— blunting out the new ball till it was old enough to be slammed around the park.
India, for all the talk of finally finding their own pace quartet, found nothing off the pitch or in the air, even after getting the ball changed. Jasprit Bumrah looked most penetrating but they played him out without taking much risk. Ravindra Jadeja too was thwarted.
But hope’s a funny business. The last time a side was dismissed under 100 at Headingley, they won the Test by one wicket. But it would take something really special for India to replicate that.
Brief scores: India 78 all out (J Anderson 3/6, O Robinson 2/16, S Curran 2/27, C Overton 3/14); England 120 for no loss (R Burns 52*, H Hameed 60*).