England play into hands of Kohli and lose fight to be alpha males
Schoolboy’ hosts all out for 120 as India go 1-0 up in series Tail-enders take game away after defying short-ball tactics
Virat Kohli wheeled away like a striker celebrating a winning goal, while Mohammed Siraj clutched one of James Anderson’s stumps like a hunter holding up his trophy as India stole a famous victory.
This was as bad as it gets for a home Test defeat. England were bowled out in two sessions after another batting calamity, but what made it so galling was they should have won this game. Clumsily they contrived to gift India a 1-0 lead in a tight series, losing the second Test by 151 runs after they were bowled out in two sessions for 120, with 49 balls left of a bad-tempered match.
“People’s Monday” belonged to Virat’s Army, as England’s onedimensional tactic of trying to blast out India’s tail with short balls bit them badly. “It was on my shoulders,” Joe Root said after Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah’s 89-run ninth-wicket stand turned India into an unstoppable force.
Set a nominal 272 target, England had to survive 60 overs to salvage a draw. Instead they collected a series of records for ducks as their dependence on Root’s batting was exposed again. Siraj was exceptional, taking four for 32, knocking over the last two wickets in four balls, while Bumrah’s three for 33 was a skilful exhibition of pace and variation.
Jos Buttler started the day early in the nets, trying to improve his footwork, and repelled India for 96 balls, but when he edged Siraj behind the game was done. The crowd chanted Anderson’s name as he walked out to bat but it was more of a lament than anything else. Three balls later, India had put England in their place.
The atmosphere was charged like no other Test match in this country since the 2005 Ashes. It pulsed with aggression and had elements of Allan Donald and Mike Atherton from 1998, with the difference that this was a confrontation that went beyond two men. It infected almost every player.
It all started on Saturday night with Bumrah’s bouncer barrage to Anderson. From that point on both sides became involved in a tit-for-tat exchange of alpha-male posturing.
It was a scrap England lost as they forgot rule No1: do not get sucked into a fight with Kohli. It is what he wants. There is nothing wrong with emotion and passion but England lost focus on the main prize of dismissing India when they let loose at Bumrah and Shami, and spread the field thinking one would back away and pop a catch.
This was Root’s 54th Test as captain, Anderson has played more Test cricket than any bowler who has ever lived. They should have spotted it was not working and reverted to probing off stump with an attacking field. Instead, Anderson did not bowl for an hour. “Schoolboy cricket. You do that when you are under-15s,” Michael Vaughan said on Test Match Special.
England had been coasting when Ollie Robinson removed Rishabh Pant and Ishant Sharma with an offcutter and a knuckle ball. India were 209 for eight, only 182 ahead. Sky’s winviz predictor gave England a 47 per cent chance of winning. An hour later it was one per cent.
India have worked hard with their tail-enders, teaching them to bat responsibly in the nets, while the squad prepared for this series with a training camp in Durham. The India tail wagged a warning sign at Trent Bridge, adding 48 valuable runs. With the new ball only a few overs old, Anderson was taken off and Mark Wood took pot-shots at two tail-enders who have limited skill but big hearts.
The runs flowed. Kohli punched the air at every milestone. India scored at four an over, Shami reached his 50 batting properly, not slogging, and both made their highest Test score. Their team-mates lined up in the Long Room to applaud them at lunch, knowing there could only be one winner.
When Kohli declared, it rubbed England’s noses in it further. It also perhaps discombobulated Rory Burns and Dom Sibley. Instead of declaring at lunch, India pulled the plug nine balls into the next session. England’s openers had to quickly pad up instead of spending the whole of lunch preparing to bat.
What followed was predictable. Sibley and Burns became the first England openers to be dismissed for nought in the same innings of a home Test in 531 matches. It also took England to 17 ducks by the top four in a calendar year, breaking their own record set in 1998.
Burns was shocked by a rising ball to his first delivery and was turned around three balls later, getting a leading edge to cover. Sibley was done by a decent ball that straightened and took the edge, but he averages 19.77 this year and England have been patient for too long. He has made no progress and needs taking out of the firing line.
Haseeb Hameed walked to the wicket on a king pair in his comeback Test. He felt for his first ball, nearly edging behind, but showed good footwork thereafter. He was dropped on four in the slips but was looking solid until Ishant came on and nipped one back and Hameed was lbw.
Kohli sprinted off on a long victory charge, revving up the fans, when he held on to an edge off Root at slip, the one-man show coming to an abrupt end off Bumrah for 33. Now England were in real trouble.
Kohli overturned a not-out decision to have Jonny Bairstow leg before, and it was only a matter of time before Moeen Ali edged to the cordon, Siraj picking up his wicket. Sam Curran’s footwork was nonexistent as he recorded the first-ever king pair at Lord’s, caught behind to leave Siraj on a hat-trick and 21.4 overs left in the day.
Robinson ignored the chatter from Kohli to block with Buttler for 12.3 overs before Bumrah’s brilliant off-cutter had him leg before, Kohli again overturning the not-out call.
India now needed two wickets, and when Buttler edged behind a ball that held its line from Siraj all that was left was for India to knock over England’s No11. Siraj showed England how it was done, homing in on off stump.