Police training saves criminal Indian display
PERHAPS all India’s batsmen should have spent their first practice day studying policing skills instead of preparing for yesterday’s final Test. It certainly did not appear to do their captain any harm as MS Dhoni stood firm against England.
Dhoni showed his commitment to the Indian cause yesterday while all around him collapsed at The Kia Oval.
If it were not for Dhoni, who spent Wednesday at a police training centre in Kent rather than training at The Oval, India would already be all but beaten.
As it is, despite the India captain’s bristling defiance while scoring 82 of his side’s 148 all out, England are very much in control of the fifth Investec Test, Alastair Cook and Sam Robson reducing the deficit by 62 at the close.
England named an unchanged side, with Chris Jordan and Chris Woakes vindicating the faith placed in them by playing a full role in support of Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad.
Between them, England’s attack were far too hot for a deflated India to handle on a greener than usual Oval pitch and with conditions very much in the bowlers’ favour after Cook won an important toss.
With Anderson taking two of the eight wickets he needed to overtake Sir Ian Botham and become England’s l eading wicket-taker and Stuart Broad proving his fitness with two victims of his own, England were very much in control. The t one was set when Anderson removed Gautam Gambhir, trying to leave a brute of a delivery, with the fourth ball of the match and it was reinforced when Broad removed another brick in the wall that was Cheteshwar Pujara.
Enter Jordan, who continued where he l eft off at Old Trafford, where he ended the Test with two wickets in successive balls, with two wicket maidens here to remove both Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane. At which time, across the two Tests, Jordan had taken four wickets without conceding a run in 14 balls.
And so it continued until Ishant Sharma, badly missed by India in the last two Tests, joined his captain and held England up i n yet another productive last-wicket stand, even though India should never have reached three figures.
England have maintained the initiative they first claimed in Southampton and maintained in Manchester under a captain in Cook who has come through such a searching examination.