Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
PANT’S ON FIRE
Cavalier England punished by brilliant Indian counter-attack as Rishabh takes leaf out of Stokes’ attacking playbook
BY
THE peril of running towards danger – as England have been charged to do – is that occasionally you are going to walk onto a punch.
And on the first day of this rearranged fifth Test with India, Ben Stokes’ side did just that, Rishabh Pant leading a fightback which took India off the ropes and left England dazed.
At 98-5, the bold decision of putting the visitors in at Edgbaston looked set to pay off in spectacular fashion. All out for 150 looked a possibility.
But a magnificent 222-run partnership between Pant and Ravi Jadeja took the tourists from the edge back to firm ground before the former finally edged Joe Root to depart for 146 with the score 320-6.
England hit back with a second wicket in the final hour, but at 338-7 this was a rearguard action of substance.
Having held firm for much of it with between three and even four slips in an all-attack field, skipper Stokes was reduced to banging it in short at the pair with three men on the leg-side boundary in an effort to tempt Pant or Jadeja to hook themselves out.
For the large part they resisted, electing to pick off easier fruit against spin until Pant finally fell trying to put a delivery into Birmingham city centre.
Pant has form against England having posted centuries at The Oval in 2018 and in Ahmedabad last year – two of his now five Test hundreds.
He bats with a buccaneering style of which Stokes would no doubt approve were he not on the receiving end.
The England captain deserved credit for sticking to an attacking Plan A and it will take more than a frustrating half day’s play for him to abandon principles set in stone.
But his field placement – slips and few sweepers – left gaps which allowed the India pair to counterpunch their way back into the contest.
England had started well after deciding to field to make best use of early-morning movement and give them the favoured batting conditions on days two and three.
A rain break saw an hour and 40 minutes lost but England took five wickets, Jimmy Anderson grabbing two before lunch and Matthew Potts two after. When Sam Billings pulled off a superb diving catch to dismiss Shreyas Iyer down the leg side, again off Anderson’s bowling, India looked in all sorts of trouble.
Their third highest sixthwicket partnership brought England back down to earth.
England thought they had Jadeja when he was on just five. An edge off Stuart
Broad looked to have carried to
Root at first slip, but on review it was ruled the ball had touched the ground.
After his seamers tired and the ball softened, Stokes tried to tempt the pair with spin and a mid-on and mid-off brought up and Pant accepted the invitation, smashing four sixes and 19 fours.
Jadeja was equally impressive playing perfect understudy to Pant’s fireworks and finished the day unbeaten and 17 short of a century. The new ball is due after seven overs of play today, which will give England hope for round two.