India vs England : 4th Test Match at Old Trafford., Day Two :
India vs England : 4th Test Match at Old Trafford.
Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy
Day Two :
A new look Indian team mix of old and new players with no Rohit, Kohli, Sami and even Shreyas sitting out on one side and a weak England side on papers on the other side.....but between them stands a Cricketer who has all the qualities to be the best when you think of all the roles one has to play in the field....Captain, Bowler, Batsman, Fielder and the mind game he has mastered....he is none other than Ben Stokes. Another fifer, another milestone reached; single handedly controlling the game for England.
The Stokes power continued even while England were batting and the openers took charge from the 1st ball, scoring majestically over 5 runs an over. The new ball couldn't do any damage and with the sun coming out while home team started, helped the wicket to ease out a more. Crawley who wasn't in great form played confidently and Duckett continued with his form toying with the Indian bowlers including the debutant Kamboj along with Siraj and Shardul. For some moments it seemed that even Bumrah was not being spared. The missing line and length, the immaturity visible in the bowling coupled with English batters belting all over left everyone amused. The bowlers were treated like club level players.
Lot was expected on 2nd day from overnight batters with Jadeja and Shardul batting to take the score to a decent competitive level followed by Washington Sundar, but as anticipated that the morning session with the new ball aided by conditions, wicket and cloudy skies will do the trick, became true with Jadeja perishing early with his score at 20 runs and India reducing to 266 for 5. Brook the fielder he is took a brilliant catch of Archer.
Shardul and Washington steadied the innings with a small good partnership of 48 runs when Washington became the victim of of Ben Stokes with his score at 27 runs.
Ben Stokes was on fire extracting life from the wicket, bowling superbly to a line and getting the extra bounce and movement off the seam to force Shardul edging to Duckett for a brilliant catch at his personal score of 41 runs. Next to follow was Kamboj playing his first test unable to face fiery Stokes edging to Smith. Suddenly the score stood at 337 for 8.
Pant joined at the fall of Shardul's wicket and was given standing ovating entering the ground limping in pain with his injured toe.
The courage he had displayed while on the ground thwarting of the deliveries coming into him and also aimed at his legs couldn't stop him scoring another 50, an innings of grit and determination. At last he couldn't manage a faster one, keeping low from Archer, knocking his off stump. India finished their innings shortly after adding another 9 runs and wer all out for 358 runs. It was a small but spirited knock which will be etched in everyone's mind.
Duckett played with elegance and continued to play shots after the departure of Crawley.
Pope joined him and though started cautiously still had some anxious moments. It seemed that the Indian bowlers were getting some rhythm back in last one hour of the play. A rising delivery from Komboj took an edge of the bat and Duckett was out at his personal score of 94 with England score at 197 for 2. A dejected Duckett, visibly annoyed on himself walked towards the pavillion and Root replacing him.
England ended their innings at the end of day two with score at 225 for 2 with Root and Pope remained unbeaten.
The moving day of the test match will decide the course of the match and all eyes will be on the England batters, whether they can reach the score of around 450 to 500 to take a sizeable lead or Indian bowlers will comeback strongly in the first session of the play.
With the ball already 46 overs old and England batters have scored at an average rate of five runs per over, the bowlers will have to keep a steady line and length to contain them and not concede any lead.
Jadeja already showing signs of spin, cracks appearing in the wicket and as the game progresses will open up further, the 3rd day will be very important for both the teams to take advantage over other. The Old Trafford wicket is different from what it used to be. With good batting wicket as proved today and also assisting some spin bowling, it will be interesting to watch the players adapting to the wicket.
Another test match in the series which will be hardly fought for results with India hoping to square the series.
India has to bowl very well from hereon, else England would run away with this match to take an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely....tomorrow 1st session is important and so is the day.
DeleteThe lack of solid depth in the Indian batting order with a 4 bowling all rounders hemming our batting lower middle order - and lack of proper specialist bowlers sans Bumrah and Siraj was very apparent on Day 2. So far in the series, barring the second innings at Lords luckily our 5 top order batters, between themselves had clicked m, allowing the previous 3 tests to go into final sessions- but in this test our lack of depth is showing!
ReplyDeleteTrue....Very poor show...horrible bowling.
DeleteNice read , especially since I only watched up to lunch yesterday. Watched highlights in the morning. Swing and bounce became true yesterday, but how come Indian bowlers had no plan or strategy or reassessed the situation? For each batter they should have strategy and execute it. ”Subhman, learn from Ben your peer mate , and Gautam see Macculum”. Great day I ahead, I hope.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely.....Indian think tank and the team are just unable to match England and Ben is standing between them...the way he leads in all departments is amazing.
DeleteThis Indian Team lacks motivation. There is no depth in batting as well as bowling. Very unfortunate. I have also serious doubt about the captaincy of Gill. He is a pure introvert and has nothing to motivate or cheer up the team members, in the field as well as , off the field. I don't know whether others will agree with me or not. Compilation of the blog has been very good.
ReplyDeleteFully agree with your assessment..very poor show, the motivation is lacking...no positivity in body language..lastly poor combination of team.
DeleteNicely compiled. Clearly exposes India’s failure with an experimental team. Team management has to do brainstorming to bring out the best from the playing eleven. England team on the other hand is fired up and improving with every test match, all credit to their captain for his all round performance as you have rightly mentioned.
ReplyDelete