History prevails as India level the series
India v England, 5th February 2024.
India 396 all out and 255 all out
England 253 all out and 292 all out
India win by 106 runs
The alarm clock shrilled its now regular tune at 3.30am but I was already awake and enjoying my first cup of tea ahead of a long night of the soul as well as watching the grandest of all games. I was up before the alarm for a variety of reasons, sporting and otherwise, a mix of excitement and expectation ahead of England chasing the impossible once more for sure, but sleep was always going to evade my troubled mind once I set eyes upon an old friend, and dreams flooded my cricketing brain for a love that will forever remain unrequited.
It’s almost a year to the day since I celebrated being 51 not out in this strange game we call life by watching England defeat New Zealand at the Bay Oval in beautiful Mount Maunganui. I may not have been there physically but it was easy to be in this little piece of sporting paradise in spirit, this tiny sporting venue with its grassed banks ringing the playing field waiting for wherever you decide to pitch your deckchair for the day and a day of cricket in the sunshine of New Zealand. Whilst I celebrated my birthday by watching this Test Match through the night aided and abetted as always by copious amounts of freshly brewed tea, I couldn’t help but fall in love with the pleasing prospect of being there, entering the ground and choosing my “spec” for the day. Perhaps forego the rigid conformity of a deckchair and just sit upon the grass bank and maybe even slowly move, hour by hour or session by session, to different parts of this delightful cricket venue.
So with sleep evading me I happened upon the 2nd day of the Test Match between an incredibly strong and familiar New Zealand starting XI piling up the runs against an unrecognisable looking South Africa team with six debutants, a new captain, and what seems like a long, arduous and evolutionary cricketing journey ahead of them and then, that arrow of sporting love hit me. I was back in Mount Maunganui. Nearly a year older. No more the wiser. Still infatuated with watching Test Match cricket through the dead of a winter’s night, and still dreaming those same dreams.
It will forever be an unrequited love (unless of course you wish to whisk me to the other side of the world and then I’ll be at Heathrow Airport quicker than you can say “Air New Zealand”) with last year’s series between England and New Zealand forming the fifth and final part of my first book on cricket “Ashes to Ashes” and with the circular nature of this indeed strange game we call life I’ll be returning to Mount Maunganui this evening, pitching my metaphorical deckchair on the grass banks before in just a few days time, celebrating being 52 not out in the game of life by watching not one, not even two, but three games of Test Match cricket on my birthday. India, Australia and New Zealand. The later trips in the evening down under will cross each other on our earthly timeline but one can’t quibble with watching cricket on one’s birthday for it is a rare treat indeed.
Anyway, enough of such self regarding nonsense. History prevailed. England chased the impossible, came up 106 runs short and India thoroughly deserved a win their match dominance should have guaranteed. It was tight, and had England’s two most experienced players not inflicted their own cricketing wounds, they may even have re-written history once more. Alas.
Rather than a session by session breakdown of the day’s play as is my norm, I like to pen my thoughts on the final day’s play in a different manner and so here’s a UK timeline of how day 4 in Visakhapatnam unfolded with England, needing 399 to win and the fifth all time highest 4th innings run chase in the entire history of this great game starting today on 67–1, needing a further 332 runs for a spectacular victory:
4.32am Ahmed lbw bowled Patel 23
Last evening’s “Night Watchman” Rehan Ahmed continued in the same vein this morning with attacking shots aplenty and clearly a “licence” to do so from his revolutionary leaders in captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum. This 19 year old ball of energy and enthusiastic confidence continues to blossom since his debut a year ago in Pakistan and added 14 runs this morning to his overnight total of 9 before being trapped LBW (Leg Before Wicket) by a quicker spinning delivery from Axar Patel. In the strangely beautiful vernacular of the great game he was “dead” and “plumb” in front of his stumps and more simply and plainly out. He knew this without referring to the TV Umpire, with subsequent replays confirming Patel’s quicker ball would have hit the very middle of his middle stump. But the kid had done his job perfectly, adding 23 runs to the team’s total as well as protecting the senior batsmen that would now follow on a fresh new day.
4.48am Starting this morning on 29 not out, England opener Zak Crawley, a batsman I have long championed and make no apologies for continually doing so, reached his 50 from just 83 balls received and was spearheading a serene if quick chase for the historic runs required to win this Test Match. No rash, extravagant or outrageous shots. Just technically correct batting strokes for repeated boundary 4’s and a continuation that saw the 26 year old from Bromley in Kent score 76 in England’s 1st innings. He was in fine “nick” once more and looked the batsman most likely to score the big hundred needed and “anchor” for the innings in the run chase. Cruelly, and very unluckily, he wouldn’t reach the Lunch Break.
4.57am Pope caught Sharma bowled Ashwin 23
England vice-captain Ollie Pope raced to a run-a-ball 23 and like partner Zak Crawley, looked in fine cricketing fettle before he flashed at a delivery from Ravi Ashwin that bounced a little more than perhaps he expected. His flailing drive snagged the outside edge of his bat, flying at Indian skipper Rohit Sharma at 1st Slip who took a quite brilliant catch. All reactionary skill, no time to think or adjust his position and a catch that either “sticks” or it doesn’t. Unfortunately for Pope and England, it stuck, and the players adjourned for the Drinks Break with England already having added 65 runs in the first hour’s play but crucially, losing 2 wickets in the process.
At 132–3, England were still a distant 267 further runs from victory.
5.08am New batsman Joe Root attacks from the off, reverse sweeping consecutive boundary 4’s before surviving a cigarette paper thin review for LBW on review. 4 minutes later would see his definitive demise.
5.12am Root caught Patel bowled Ashwin 16
The first of England’s self-inflicted wounds and whilst this revolutionary team under the guidance of Stokes and McCullum play this way, surely the ex England captain should have stayed with Zak Crawley and simply accumulated runs as the teams headed toward the Lunch Break. Instead, Root tried a spectacular shot for a boundary 6 and simply lofted a simple sky high catch for Axar Patel to pouch and for Ravi Ashwin to celebrate his 499th Test Match wicket.
England were now 154–4 and still a further 245 runs from their impossible mission.
5.52am Crawley lbw bowled Yadav 73
I noted this simple sentence in my notes: “What a cruel game this can be”. Crawley was majestic on his way to 73 with no risk run accumulation and playing the game in front of him. Right on the cusp of the Lunch Break he was struck on his pads by a delivery from Kuldeep Yadav that appeared both in real time and even on the TV replay to be heading down the leg side and a waste of an Umpire review that Indian captain Rohit Sharma was incredibly reticent to call for. To the shock and amazement of not just myself but both sets of players, ex England captain Alistair Cook in a UK TV studio and of course a disconsolate Crawley, the delivery was adjudged to be hitting his leg stump, the 26 year old given out, and England still a very distant 205 further runs from a now almost impossible victory.
England simply couldn’t lose another wicket before the Lunch Break.
Step forward arch nemesis, Jasprit Bumrah.
5.58am Bairstow lbw bowled Bumrah 26
The Yorkshireman looked comfortable throughout his stay at the crease, scoring his 26 runs briskly and from just 36 balls received. Alas his 36th and last delivery received viciously jagged inward and into his pads and yet again on review the ball was hitting his leg stump and he had to go. Lunch was immediately taken and England were still 205 further runs from victory but rather more pertinently perhaps, India were now just 4 wickets from a thoroughly dominant and deserved victory themselves.
"Ashes to Ashes" - Available on Amazon
"The Spirit of Cricket" - Available on Amazon
An orange coloured crescent moon was my only companion as I lamented in the break in play that England were so near to a brilliant morning’s cricket that had seen them rattle off 127 runs in pursuit of their unlikely victory only to come up against a self-inflicted wound for sure, as well as the force of nature that is Jasprit Bumrah and Ravi Ashwin on the cusp of 500 Test Match wickets amid a personal duel with Australian spin bowler Nathan Lyon for 8th place in the all time list for most wickets in this elongated and grandest of all games. Zak Crawley was unlucky. The catch to dismiss Ollie Pope was a one in a hundred wonder effort from Rohit Sharma and Jonny Bairstow just got in the way of the runaway train that is Jasprit Bumrah. With only 4 wickets remaining England were in deep trouble and with 2 fresh batsmen starting the afternoon session.
7.21am Stokes run out 11
For over 40 minutes these 2 fresh batsmen, captain Ben Stokes and wicket-keeper Ben Foakes, eased their way to a comfortable 26 run partnership before England’s second and decisive self-inflicted wound spelled an almost certain defeat. An easy single seemed to be in the offing as Foakes set off and his captain ambled and jogged the first part of the run before breaking into a sprint a split second too late and after Shreyas Iyer had brilliantly hit the stumps on the full. A TV replay rang the death knell on Stokes’ innings, and that of his team.
7.40am Drinks Break: England 245–7 (needing 154 more runs to win)
Now joined by Tom Hartley, Ben Foakes remained England’s last recognised batsman and upon whose shoulders their fate rested. Whilst Hartley, in only his second all time Test Match resisted with the bat once more to reach the break 11 not out, Foakes was comfortably 26 not out and dreams were being dreamed once more in central England that the impossible run chase was still on. With the crescent moon now replaced by the breaking of dawn and a wintry and windy English morning, those dreams would soon be dashed.
8.01am Tom Hartley receives a “life” and Ravi Ashwin’s 500th Test Match wicket is rescinded after the England batsman is given out caught after a spectacular catch at 1st Slip by Rohit Sharma but immediately appeals as the ball hit his arm and not his batting gloves. Hartley has batted brilliantly, if in vain, once again, and now has over a hundred runs to his name across the 2 Test Matches.
8.11am Against the odds, Ben Foakes and Tom Hartley reach a battling 50 run partnership from just 63 balls received with Foakes 31 not out and Hartley 30 not out. Hope springs eternal once more with England 270–7, needing 129 more runs for victory.
8.16am Foakes caught and bowled Bumrah 36
England’s nemesis returns with a brilliant slower ball that fools Foakes into a false shot and straight into the returning hands of the bowler supreme.
8.32am Bashir caught Bharat bowled Kumar 0
The 20 year old debutant ably assists Hartley for 15 minutes before edging a simple catch through to Bharat behind the stumps and England are minutes away from defeat.
8.44am Hartley bowled Bumrah 36
Hartley’s stout resistance is broken by the wonderful fast bowling of Jasprit Bumrah as he rips his off stump clean out of the ground to finish with innings figures of 3 wickets for 46 runs and a Test Match total of 9 wickets for just 91 runs.
This 5 Test Match series now heads to Rajkot in ten days level at 1–1.
Afterword
Whilst Ben Stokes called the decision to give Zak Crawley out as “wrong” he was magnanimous in defeat, described Jasprit Bumrah as a “genius” and sang the praises of Tom Hartley, Rehan Ahmed and Shoaib Bashir who have played “5 or 6 Test Matches between them”. Indian coach Rahul Dravid singled out Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jasprit Bumrah for special praise whilst also acknowledging that his team had “left a few runs on the board in both innings” whilst licking his lips at a “fantastic series” and “there’s going to be some tough cricket played over the next three games”.
There sure is, and with that comes a dilemma dear reader. For my birthday this year comes with the sporting delight of THREE games of Test Match cricket in India, Australia and New Zealand. So we have the choice of India and England in Rajkot, Australia ladies versus South Africa ladies in Perth or New Zealand and their male South African counterparts in Hamilton.
I’ll leave it up to you where we go. I’m nice like that.
Just don’t forget the birthday cake!
And a mountain of candles.
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