One step away from the WTC finals

Winning the second test match got India back on track as far as qualifying for the WTC finals was concerned. On the other side for England, it meant they had to win both the third and fourth test matches to qualify.

Before the start of the series, the third test was the match which India eyed with trepidation. Mainly because of England’s superior swing bowling options. In the only Day-Night test match held in India previously (Against Bangladesh in Eden Gardens in 2019), the pace bowlers got 19 wickets and there was the chance of heavy dew in Ahmedabad too after 8.30 PM thus negating India’s spin bowling resources.

There was a lot of talk about the stadium and the pitch before the start of the match. It was a historic occasion because the newly built stadium in Ahmedabad was the world’s second-largest stadium (across all sports/countries). The stadium looked grandeur and it was indeed a proud moment for India. The pitch was always expected to be under scrutiny especially after the turner that was dished out in Chennai. Once again it was expected to turn but then how much turn was the big question and would dew negate the spinners in the latter half of the day?

England and the Indian team management seemed to have read the pitch differently. Because where England started with 3 frontline pace bowlers, India started with 3 frontline spin bowlers. It was opposite of each other and at the start of the match when I was chatting with my friends I told them that someone has read the pitch pretty wrong. 

Joe Root won a very important toss and quite expectedly decided to bat first. It was Ishant Sharma’s 100th Test match. Ishant Sharma entered with a bang in 2008 (who can forget that spell in Perth?) but his career progression didn’t follow the upward trajectory as it was expected after that initial burst in Australia. But over the last 3-4 years, he came back strongly and has now become an automatic choice in the Indian playing XI. Playing 100 test matches as a pace bowler for India is no mean achievement and no wonder he is the second man after Kapil Dev to reach this coveted milestone.

The Indian team gave him a guard of honour as they took the field on Day 1 of the Test Match.

Ishant Sharma started the proceedings for India and he provided the first breakthrough too. Incidentally, as things panned out, this was the only wicket that an Indian pace bowler took in the whole Test match. I guess, England got it all wrong with their team selection.

The spinners were brought in within the first half an hour and Axar Patel got rid of Johnny Bairstow pretty immediately to put England on the backfoot. Zak Crawley was playing some delightful strokes though and with the ever-reliant Joe Root for company, England slowly but surely got back into the groove.

With 15 minutes to go for lunch, Ashwin from round the wicket, got a ball to straighten and Root failed to read the length, played on the backfoot waiting for the turn and got hit on the pad right in front of the wicket. That wicket shifted the momentum completely because Zak Crawley who till then was playing so well and scored a delightful half-century failed to pick up a straight ball from Axar Paten and lost his wicket. In a matter of few minutes, England fell from 74/2 to 80/4.

The advantage of winning the toss was frittered away as it was India who looked to be in the ascendency when the teams broke for the tea break.

It felt a bit weird to think that the first break on a day was a Tea Break because generally it’s a lunch break for 40 minutes but then this was a day-night encounter with the match starting at 2.30 PM. The players were back after the break but the break did more harm to England than to India because right after the break Ollie Pope and Ben Stokes got out leaving England tottering at 81/6. 

When the series started it was a known fact that for India to do well, they needed to get Root and Stokes early. It didn’t happen in the first test and India suffered but after that first innings in Chennai, it became a night made for Stokes as Ashwin made him his bunny. There is a reason why Ashwin is the world record holder for dismissing the maximum number of left-handers in world cricket and Stokes’ problem against Ashwin just amplifies that fact.

Olly Pope came to India with a lot of hope but that didn’t translate into runs. His was a painful stay in Ahmedabad as he was neither able to judge the length nor the line. He was a sitting duck throughout his stay in the crease and the inevitable had to happen.

Once the top order was back in the hut it was just a matter of time for India to wrap up the tail. England finished at 112 to register their lowest total against India. Axar Patel with 6 wickets was the wrecker in chief. The lights were hardly on and India was out batting.

There were a lot of jokes running around twitter pointing out that the English pace bowlers wanted to bowl at the Indian batsmen under lights and that’s the reason why the team got out before sunset. Jokes aside, it was a horrible bit of batting from England. It was a wicket where one needed to apply himself and it was more in the mind than anything else.

When the Indians came into bat, the pressure was less because England had scored way too less but Gill and Pujara got out quickly and it was left to Rohit and Virat to resurrect the innings. They went about their duty very calmly and India looked well set to close the day with only 2 wickets down. One of the problems with today’s batsmen is that patience is no longer the virtue thanks to slam-bang cricket. It was this specific reason which brought about the downfall of Virat Kohli minutes before stumps. He tried to cut a ball that was too close to his body and he played on. That wicket made a lot of difference because, at that time, England just hoped for a wicket and India was in full control. 

The next day we got to understand the difference that wicket made because one after another Indian batsmen went back to the pavilion. Joe Root looking at the amount of turn that Leech was getting got himself to bowl and he picked up 3 wickets for virtually nothing. From 114/3 India slumped to 125/8. India took a lead but it was very minuscule. India finally got bowled out for 145 runs with a lead of only 33 runs. Joe Root was the destructor in chief picking up 5 wickets for 8 runs. Amazing figures for the English captain and it showed how much the pitch was playing in the batsmen’s mind.

How much would that lead matter? Or was this a second innings shoot-out was what was going in my mind when England started their second innings. A peach of a delivery from Axar Patel got rid of the first innings half-centurian, Zak Crawley on the very first ball. The stage was set for another encore for the man from Gujarat. In the very same over he got Braistow bowled too.

Joe Root and Ben Stokes held the innings together for a while and as soon as India got the better of them, it was game over for England. They could last only 30 overs and got bowled out for 81 runs only.

India needed 49 runs to win and I was thinking what more twist was remaining to be seen. But the English bowlers had almost given up and when the Indian openers came out to bat they were extremely positive. Some lofted drives and straight sixes greeted the English spinners and India was able to rattle off the required 49 runs in 7 overs only.

A 10 wicket victory within 2 days brought India to the cusp of the WTC finals. Lots were written about the pitch but the fact was that both the batting teams struggled to pick the pink ball and the pitch though not a minefield, played tricks with the batsmen’s mind. As Gavaskar said in the commentary, it’s all in the mind.

As it turned out it was the shortest game of Test cricket that was ever played in the world after world war 2. Only 842 balls were bowled and the much-touted day-night match hardly became one because 2 full nights of cricket were not witnessed.

Axar Patel continued his dream run in Test cricket picking up 11 wickets in the match and quite rightly bagging the man of the match award. India’s failure with the bat was somehow covered up with the excellent bowling performance by the spinners.

With 2-1 up, India had the momentum to take them through to the WTC finals and the loss ensured that England was thrown out of the championship.

The 4th Test match was a day match but the question on everyone’s mind was how would the pitch play. But then that’s for another day as India enjoyed their day under lights which took them to the top of the WTC table. A draw in the next test match was enough for them to seize the spot but no one plays for a draw these days, isn’t it?

I will come back once again to write about how things transpired in the 4th test match. Till then, Au Revoir!

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