KOHLI HOLDS KEY TO CLASSIC
England have to see off India skipper for victory
It is all down to the greatest batsman in the world. All down to Virat Kohli to decide this morning which side will triumph in what looks destined to go down as one of the best of all England’s 1,000 test matches.
Get Kohli, who has already faced more deliveries in this first test than in the whole of the 2014 tour, early today and England will surely win this wonderful first instalment of a series that has already exceeded all possible expectations.
Yet, if an Indian captain who rode his luck to reach an amazing first innings hundred hangs around this morning, then it will be the visitors who will go on to what would be the best of their seven test victories in England.
Forget ‘the Hundred’. Forget the ECB’s desperation to meddle with the game in pursuit of a mythical new audience. this is the kind of cricket that will surely appeal to current and future enthusiasts of any age or gender.
this first test could not be more finely balanced. England need five more wickets and India require another 84 runs with Kohli, unbeaten on 43 off 76 balls, requiring the sort of support from his tail that helped him dramatically carry India so close to first innings parity.
It was here at Edgbaston that the greatest of all tests took place in 2005 and this one could yet come close to emulating it. Why not? this could go either way after three tumultuous days of cricket left it on a knife-edge.
England, at 216 for three in their first innings and when they had India 100 for five first time round, should have won the game convincingly. Yet so utterly abject were they yesterday morning their chance had seemingly gone and India were overwhelming favourites themselves.
that England were even in with a sniff of victory after another miserable batting display was almost totally down to a young all-rounder who already seems destined for a long and successful international career.
When Jos Buttler became the third batsman to fall in a single over from the brilliant Ishant Sharma either side of lunch on the third day and seventh in all, England were on their way to the most demoralising of heavy defeats. But Sam Curran firstly steadied the ship in company with Adil Rashid and then quite spectacularly took the attack to the Indian bowlers, to the delight of what at last was a packed and raucous Edgbaston crowd.
From the horrid second innings depths of 87 for seven, Curran added 48 with Rashid and then, after the Yorkshireman had been beaten by Umesh Yadav, took the initiative in a thrilling stand with Stuart Broad.
First Curran took a step down the pitch to Ravichandran Ashwin, who has tormented England’s other left-handers in this test, and smashed long and high into Edgbaston’s pavilion for six.
He did something similar to the very next ball to deposit Ashwin for four and after Kohli had paid the youngster the ultimate compliment by taking his prime off-spinning weapon out of the attack, came his best shot yet.
Curran took another step down the pitch and smashed Ishant over extra cover for six to go to the first of what could be many test half centuries for England.
When he became the last man to fall he’d ensured England had added 93 for the last three wickets and they had set India 20 runs more than they have ever made to win a test in England.
Yet the all-rounder’s efforts should not camouflage another woeful batting display from England. As in the first innings, the key wicket for India came in the form of England captain Joe Root but this time, sadly, the England captain was culpable when he steered Ashwin straight to KL Rahul at leg-slip.
But the batsman who will most rue his dismissal will be Dawid Malan who survived what looked like a clean catch to slip but could not take advantage and was again dismissed in a familiar, defensive, static fashion.
this has been a miserable test for Malan and one that looks destined to see him dropped for Lord’s. Another Surrey youngster in Ollie Pope could well be Ed Smith’s next bold pick.
For now, that can wait because thanks to Curran, England were at least able to set India 194 to win, a total that, with overhead conditions still favouring swing, at least gave England a chance. How they seized it.
Root got it right in sticking with his big two as Broad, with that big-occasion spring in his step, made two early incursions. Edgbaston was rocking as Broad received superb support with one wicket each for Jimmy Anderson, Ben Stokes and Curran.
When Anderson had Ajinkya Rahane, India were 78 for five and a three-day finish was in prospect. Yet Kohli held firm with Dinesh Karthik as India lived to fight another day.
Now everyone will come back today for the denouement, hopefully with another packed crowd present worthy of the occasion. And whatever happens we already know that this series is likely to be something special.