Cricket: England outclass India
India arrived in England as the world’s top Test side, said Paul Newman in the Daily Mail. They had won ten of their previous 11 series. But in the second Test, at Lord’s, they were “completely outclassed”. The hosts dominated, winning by an innings and 159 runs to take a 2-0 lead in the series. No Indian batsman scored more than Ravichandran Ashwin’s 33 runs; Chris Woakes, by contrast, was on 137 not out when England declared. England may have been playing without Ben Stokes, who was on trial for affray, but they didn’t miss him “in the least”.
In cricket, the toss is “often irrelevant”, said Mike Atherton in The Times. “This was not one of those occasions.” By opting to bowl first, England forced India to bat on a day punctuated by showers; the next day, when it was the hosts’ turn to bat, the sun came out. But weather alone doesn’t explain England’s victory, said Tim Wigmore in The Daily Telegraph. This was a team firing on all cylinders. Facing James Anderson at Lord’s is always a “transcendental challenge”. And in this Test, there was “no release” for India’s batsmen: Anderson’s nine wickets took his total haul at Lord’s to 100, making him only the second bowler in history to take that many at a single venue. But the man of the match was Woakes, said Barney Ronay in The Observer. A “hugely well-liked cricketer”, the allrounder was only in the side as a replacement for Stokes. He picked a good moment for his maiden Test century – a “fluent, high-class” innings – and proved his worth as a bowler by taking four wickets. India only have themselves to blame, said Scyld Berry in The Daily Telegraph. They simply “failed to prepare” for this series: their sole warm-up match was a three-day game against Essex. “No touring team have ever organised so little practice before a five-test series in England.”