Buttler, Stokes frustrate India
Tourists forced to wait for victory against England
Jasprit Bumrah’s triple strike in the space of two overs paved the way for India to close in on a win after pushing England to 311 for nine in the third Test at Trent Bridge.
The Indian pacer finished with a five-wicket haul after dismissing century-maker Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow off consecutive deliveries and Chris Woakes the following over to wrest the initiative back from England. Buttler compiled a well-deserved century and Ben Stokes (62) provided some badly needed stability for England during the fourth day yesterday.
Buttler, who was unbeaten on 74 at tea, completed his century during the final session. Buttler and Stokes gave India some jitters with a 169run partnership for the fifth wicket. But the visitors, though, had plenty of time needed for victory and no shortage of runs to play with, as England face an improbable target of 521.
England lead the five-Test series 2-0 but the final two matches could now be real battles if, as expected, India finish off the task to pull one game back. The first wicketless session of the series brought some cheer to home supporters at Trent Bridge after England’s top order crumbled to 84 for four at lunch yesterday.
Given the most any side have made in the fourth innings to win a Test is the West Indies’ 418 for seven against Australia at St John’s Antigua, in 2003, there was little prospect of an England victory. But having been skittled out for just 161 in a first innings lasting 38.2 overs, with unheralded medium-pacer Hardik Pandya taking five for 28, England might have been stung into greater top-order resistance this innings.
Strong position
Instead, England slumped to 66 for four after resuming on 23 without loss — the 31st occasion in their past 62 Test innings since 2016 that they had lost their fourth wicket having scored 100 or fewer runs.
England had been shown the way by India captain Virat Kohli.
He was far from his fluent best but still made 103 on Monday, after his first-innings 97, and Cheteshwar Pujara who demonstrated a patient application in grinding out 72 off 208 balls in more than four hours at the crease to help consolidate the tourists’ already strong position.
Instead, England lost their first wicket just five balls into yesterday’s play when fast bowler Sharma, testing the left-handed openers from round the wicket, got one to straighten away from the flat-footed Keaton Jennings (13), whose thin outside edge was held safely by debutant wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.
England’s 27 for one soon became 32 for two when Sharma, again from round the wicket, had Alastair Cook (17) edging one that straightened late to second-slip KL Rahul.
England then lost their next two wickets on 64, with captain Joe Root (13) and Ollie Pope (16) both caught in the cordon. Root tried to force a Jasprit Bumrah delivery he could have left and Rahul, still at second slip, held the sharp chance — his fifth catch of the match. As if to emphasise just how superior India’s slipfielding had been in comparison to England’s this Test, Kohli then leapt high to his left at third slip to hold a superb catch that dismissed Pope, playing in just his second Test.
But it was a poor shot by the 20-year-old Surrey batsman, especially given England’s dire position, with Pope throwing his hands at a ball well-wide of off stump. An outside edge was always the likeliest result and so it proved.
It could have been even worse for England but Buttler was dropped by Pant off Bumrah. Having been given that reprieve, Buttler showed the kind of patient application that had been sorely missed from the upper order batsmen.
The pair put on 111 runs with Buttler on 67 at tea and Stokes progressing to 42. To make matters worse for England, a finger injury suffered by Jonny Bairstow while keeping wicket on Monday meant he did not come into bat in his usual No. 5 position.
But he was padded up and appeared ready to bat when required.
The world’s two top Test batsmen could both give lectures on patience, from dramatically different viewpoints. While Steve Smith waits for his 12-month suspension to end in March, Virat Kohli shows England how to play the long game.
Kohli’s willingness to play himself in, leave the ball when necessary and bend to our conditions is really a lesson to batsmen everywhere, not only at Trent Bridge. After Chris Woakes had trapped him lbw for 103, Kohli seemed to say as much when waving his bat round the full 360-degrees of the ground. The gesture said: Were you all watching? That was Test match batting. India’s captain bears the mark of greatness.
At times, this series might have been rebranded as England versus Virat Kohli.
The locomotion of the side though is Kohli’s runs, Kohli’s cunning, Kohli’s charisma. Smith can match him in the sticking-around stakes, but Australia’s ball-tampering scandal has removed Kohli’s main rival. And it could take a year or two for Smith to regain his lustre, assuming he ever does.
A few notches down is England’s challenger, Joe Root, who has been outshone in successive series by Smith (in the 2017-18 Ashes), Kane Williamson (New Zealand) and now Kohli. In this one, Kohli has made 200 runs twice in three matches: at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge. Root has posted 142 runs with a highest score of 80. Kohli has amassed 440, at an average of 73.37, with two centuries.
Australia was even worse for Root. There, Smith heaped up 687 runs, averaging 137.40. Given the chaos on that tour, Root did well to reach 378, at 47.25, but his top score was 83 (Smith’s was 239). You could hardly find a case of the robes of office hanging more heavily on an England captain, but Root has a deeper complication in his own game: a patience deficit that is preventing him converting fifties into hundreds and causing him to attack the ball too hard.
Master the pitch
Smith and Kohli are bulwarks against the dumbing down of Test batting. Both are prepared to dispense with entertainment for strategic gain. Each is secure enough in his own talent to put accumulation before self-aggrandisement. Where the scoreboard calls for it, Smith and Kohli will let balls go by rather than chase them white-ball style. In Test batting, the experts all say, you have to survive before you can thrive: master the pitch and the bowling. The great batter slows the clock down, wrests control from the bowlers by playing his or her game, not theirs. Kohli has tried to do this throughout this series, unlike some of his teammates. Finally, at Trent Bridge, India followed his example and dusted off the book of calculation.
The world’s best batsman has set the bar in Birmingham, London and Nottingham. Root has not been able to match that level. Even James Anderson is losing his personal duel with India’s global star, over 212 deliveries, though two “drops” have hardly helped.
Further afield, Kohli slipped below Smith in the International Cricket Council rankings after Lord’s but will reclaim top spot when Trent Bridge shuts its doors. His 103 here was a frontrunning job without the kind of pressure tighter matches bring.
This was Kohli’s 23rd Test hundred in 69 matches. He has converted nine of his past 13 fifties into centuries. Many pundits think he is better than Sachin Tendulkar. He also likes confrontation, which Root has yet to master, perhaps because he feels a duty to play the diplomat, given the turmoil of the last 12 months.
Comparisons aside, Kohli has graced this series. Root still has time to come back at him, if he has the patience.