TEST STILL THE BEST England win
Stokes nails danger man Kohli and England grab glory in 1,000th match
ENGLAND’S 1,000th men’s Test wasn’t quite one in a million — but then again, it wasn’t far off.
This game had everything: a delicious ebb and flow, a performance for the ages from Virat Kohli, all-round chutzpah from 20-year-old Sam Curran, and — on the final morning — a tour de force from Ben Stokes.
Crucially, for Joe Root and his team, it also had an England win, by 31 runs. It is the kind of margin that nudges a Test match towards the status of an all-time great. And few would quibble with that.
As Root and Kohli, waiting on the outfield for their TV interviews, chatted quietly together, their body language emitted mutual warmth and respect.
Mic drops had given way to back slaps. Both men knew they had been in a battle that spoke for itself.
‘It was a fabulous advert for Test cricket,’ said Root. ‘Anyone who says it’s dead should come and watch this on repeat.’
Kohli, beaten but not bowed after contributing 200 of his side’s 435 runs, agreed: ‘It’s the best format for me. People who watch it should love it if they understand the game.’
Amen to all that. Yet for all the misty-eyed glow, Root will know that, above all, it was the result that counted.
After eight games without a victory, England have won two in a row. In the red-hot cauldron of Edgbaston, they might now just have spied the green shoots of recovery.
The fourth morning dawned bright, with the narrative apparently pre-determined.
As India chased 84 more runs, and England five more wickets, the contest had been distilled in advance to two men: Kohli against Jimmy Anderson, the world’s No 1 batsman and bowler.
It didn’t quite happen. Anderson did take a wicket in the day’s first over, Dinesh Karthik edging low to second slip, where a relieved Dawid Malan clung on to a replica of the chance he missed on the second day when Kohli was 21 runs into his eventual 149.
But the telling blows were struck by Stokes, whose demeanour throughout the Test did not suggest a man two days away from answering charges of affray in Bristol Crown Court.
Perhaps the cut and thrust of a tense Test match was just what he needed. And so, with Kohli moving ominously to 51, and India needing 52 to pull off their first win at Edgbaston and only their seventh on English soil, it was Stokes who — in the city of the Bullring — grabbed the game by its horns.
His third ball was full and straight. For once, Kohli erred.
Anderson and Stuart Broad had been operating, not unreasonably, on the basis that Kohli had to be tested outside off stump.
But on this occasion, he moved across his stumps and missed a work to leg.
Stokes’s appeal was long and throaty; Aleem Dar answered in the affirmative.
Kohli asked for a review, as he had to. The technology, though, could not save him, and India’s captain trudged off, taking his team’s hopes with him. It was the moment England had been waiting for. Emboldened, Stokes struck again three balls later, Mohammed Shami poking through to Jonny Bairstow, who grabbed his fifth catch of the innings. As Stokes wheeled away towards the Hollies Stand, quiet on the first two days but raucous now, it was tempting to wonder how England would manage without him in Thursday’s second Test at Lord’s. When he got involved in a verbal exchange with Hardik Pandya, there was little doubt his mind was in Birmingham, not Bristol. Root was enjoying a serene
morning as captain, setting attacking fields while guarding the boundary, and refusing to chase the game as the prize came into view.
Then, after the drinks break, he tossed the ball to Adil Rashid, confident in his leg-spinner’s ability to flummox India’s tail.
The ploy worked a treat. Rashid’s sixth ball was a googly which, as in the first innings, Ishant Sharma failed to pick.
England needed a review to overturn umpire Chris Gaffaney’s not-out decision, but in that moment Rashid’s worth was clear.
For cleaning up the tail, something with which England have struggled, a spinner who can turn it both ways is invaluable.
Eight runs later, it was all over, as Pandya, the only Indian in this Test other than Kohli to pass 26, fiddled Stokes to first slip. Alastair Cook, like Malan before him, atoned for an earlier drop by clinging on, and India were all out for 162. England’s celebrations began.
Less than ten sessions of nip and tuck had produced 903 runs and 40 wickets, at a rate of one every seven overs. It confirmed the suspicion that the best Tests are low-scoring, in which the ball holds sway and only the best batsmen thrive. And it leant credibility to the argument that the Dukes ball used in England should be used everywhere else, too.
It also underlined the claims made by Root and Kohli about Test cricket’s pre-eminence, even if disappointing crowds on the first two days implied that sections of the cricket-loving public are beginning to wonder. But, really, who needs The Hundred when you have games like this?
As for England, the euphoria of a hard-fought win will now give way to the hard-nosed reality of selection as Malan frets over his place for Lord’s and Ed Smith and Co consider the merits of Ollie Pope, Joe Clarke and even Jason Roy. Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes will also be in the mix.
Whoever is picked, England will sense one advantage heading to Lord’s. While India relied on Kohli for runs and for wickets on Ravichandran Ashwin and Ishant, England’s effort felt more rounded.
If they can ram that home at Lord’s, even without Stokes, this may yet go down as the summer in which Root finally stamped his leadership on Test cricket.