India are over the Himalayan Mountains and far, far away
India v England, 8th March 2024.
ENGLAND 218 all out
INDIA 473–8 (leading by 255 runs)
I concluded yesterday’s journal with a very simple statement positing that England needed a “dream” morning session lest they be batted out of a competitive contest. Alas, rather than the dream scenario of snagging a bagful of quick Indian wickets they in fact experienced a humbling nightmare of a morning that began a day of vastly fluctuating fortunes for both teams but which ultimately ended with the hosts in an entirely expected dominant position entering day 3 tomorrow. But as ever we’re getting ahead of ourselves and we must start, as we shall for the remainder of this Test Match in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, 7,000 miles away in the down under sunshine of Christchurch, New Zealand.
Act One: Step forward your Centurions
With sleep evading my grasp once more it was an easy decision to warm up for the cold, snow capped mountains of the Himalayas with first the opening two sessions of the 2nd Test Match between the Kiwis of New Zealand and their noisy cousins Australia from the other side of the Tasman Sea. The duly crowned World Test Champion Australia team have long been the undoubted best Test Match cricket playing team in the world regardless of their crown and once again they proved their sporting point in devastating fashion. Already leading this 2 match series 1–0, Aussie captain Pat Cummins won the toss and immediately inserted his hosts into bat on a typically New Zealand “green seamer” of a bowler friendly wicket. Whilst this decision originally appeared to be backfiring as Kiwi openers Tom Latham and Will Young batted comfortably and largely untroubled for nearly 90 minutes, Young’s departure for 14 was soon followed by his opening partner for a well made 38 and then, right on the cusp of the Lunch Break, bright young thing Rachin Ravindra surrendered his wicket for just 4 and Aussie fast bowler supreme Josh Hazlewood had secured the first 2 of his overall 5 wicket haul to come.
New Zealand sporting hero Kane Williamson, celebrating his 100th Test Match in tandem with his captain Tim Southee, would disappoint a sell-out Christchurch crowd in the forever beautiful “Hagley Oval” for just 17 runs before becoming Hazlewood’s 4th victim shortly after the departure of big hitting Daryl Mitchell and from 47–0, the Kiwis had collapsed to 84–5. The hosts would roughly double this total to a limp 162 all out and had it not been for a last wicket stand of defiance and a crucial 55 run partnership between captain Southee and Matt Henry, the hosts could have crumbled all out just past the 100 run mark. It was at this point in Christchurch that I crossed to those snow capped mountains of the Himalayas but suffice to say and rather predictably, Australia ended the day a couple of hours later on 124–4 to trail their hosts by just 38 runs on 1st innings, with Marnus Labuschagne, one part of my affectionately self-titled “Chuckle Brothers” with Steve Smith, finally finding form with the bat to return in the morning 45 not out.
So from the number one Test Match playing team in the world we travel 7,000 miles to arguably the team determined to wrest away their crown.
Commencing this morning on a commanding 135–1 and trailing England on 1st innings by just 83 runs, India, in the guise of their captain Rohit Sharma (52 not out) and Shubman Gill (26 not out) started as they meant to go on with terrific gusto and by dismantling the opening bowling from James Anderson and Shoaib Bashir with boundary 4’s and boundary clearing 6’s aplenty. Whilst England appeared “Punch Drunk” according to the ever entertaining ex England spin bowler Graeme Swann, Gill was quickly playing catch up with his senior skipper and partner Sharma as he raced to his half century from just 64 balls received and at the mid-session break for drinks, India had reached 202–1 and had added a quick-fire 67 runs in total without losing any wickets.
This painful pattern for England would continue throughout the second hour of play this morning as first Sharma (100 from 160 balls received) and then Gill (100 from 142 balls received) each reached their century milestone whilst adding a further 62 team runs in the hour’s play to rest at the Lunch Break with each a Test Match century under their belts and unbeaten, and a 1st innings team total of 264–1. In this morning session alone each batsman had reached their century, the 1st innings scores between the team’s were level after just 80 minutes of play, 129 total runs were added without the loss of any wickets and at Lunch, India already had a commanding lead on 1st innings of 46 runs with 9 wickets still in hand and 2 batsmen resting on centuries.
"Kuldeep Yadav spins England out of control in Dharamshala"
"Ashes to Ashes" - Available on Amazon
"The Spirit of Cricket" - Available via Amazon
Act Two: Who writes Ben Stokes’ scripts?
This session of two very distinct halves started with a “magic ball”, a “fantasy”, a cricketing “Jaffa” or just an absolute beauty of a delivery from Ben Stokes that pitched on middle stump before jagging perfectly past the forward defence of Rohit Sharma to crash spectacularly into his off stump. The Indian captain and centurion had added just a single run to his pre Lunch century before receiving the archetypal unplayable delivery from his opposite number but what was far more remarkable and fitting for this cricketing fantasy was that this delivery, this first ball from Ben Stokes, was his first ball bowled in anger since last Summer and since a self-imposed ban from bowling to aid his recovery from a knee injury that, fingers crossed, can now finally be banished to the mists of a former time. Despite delivering a quite unplayable delivery that crashed into his opposite number’s off stump, Stokes barely registered any kind of celebration whatsoever but rather left it to his great mates Mark Wood, James Anderson and coach Brendon McCullum to sum up this somewhat unreal turn of events by simply smiling in astonishment and holding their heads in shocked wonder. Sharma returned to the Pavilion smiling broadly for he had been utterly defeated and no doubt wondered to himself who indeed wrote Ben Stokes’ scripts!
The script writers were clearly busy in Dharamshala as just 4 runs and 7 deliveries later, James Anderson followed his captain’s lead by bowling another beauty “through the gate” of Shubman Gill’s defence to dismantle his “castle” of stumps behind him, ripping his off stump clean from the ground in the process. Both centurions had been dismissed in a matter of minutes, India had finally been reduced from 275–1 to 279–3 but far more notably, James Anderson had his 699th Test Match wicket to stand on the cusp of joining the vaunted “700 Club” and becoming only its third member in the entire storied history of this magnificent game.
The afternoon session of two very differing halves was now underway in earnest and in the hands of yet another debutant for India in this series as well as a fellow newbie playing only his 3rd Test Match for his country. Thrust together at 279–3, the very impressive Sarfaraz Khan ostensibly received a “life” when on just 2 with Ben Stokes disappointing his script writers by dropping a return catch off his own bowling only to raise his hands in praise to the heavens when discovering he’d bowled a “no ball”. By the mid-session break for drinks, Khan had carefully edged and crafted to his way to 8 not out. In contrast, debut maker Devdutt Padikkal arrived at a Test Match crease for the first time and, in the cricketing vernacular, “only dealt in boundaries” as he raced to 31 not out with 28 coming from sparkling boundary 4’s. The roles were then reversed in the second hour of the session with Padikkal far more circumspect as he added just 13 runs to be 44 not out at the Tea Break whilst his partner, in an on-going unbroken partnership of 97, raced from 8 to a run-a-ball 51 not out, their team total to 376–3 and a lead on 1st innings of 158 runs.
Act Three: Shoaib Bashir leads the England fightback
The day’s final session was a beautiful mix of fluctuating fortunes and perfectly representative of everything that came before it. Yet again we had a wicket straight after the resumption in play as Shoaib Bashir spun a gem of a delivery that Sarfaraz Khan could only edge and help its way into the eager hands of Joe Root at 1st Slip, Devdutt Padikkal reached his milestone maiden Test Match half century before being utterly defeated by another gem of a spinning delivery from Shoaib Bashir and Dhruv Jurel “holed out” on the boundary for just 15 to present the ever eager and impressive Bashir with his 4th wicket of the innings. The tumble of quick wickets continued via the spinning fingers of his partner Tom Hartley as he snagged both Ravi Jadeja and Ravi Ashwin in the space of 5 deliveries to become the top wicket taker of the series with 22 before, with England smelling sporting blood for the first time in the match, Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah resisted everything the visitors could throw at them in an unbroken stand of 45 that ensured India reached the day ending “Stumps” on 473–8 and a huge, dare I say unbeatable lead on 1st innings of 255 runs.
So that was the day that was. India compiled 338 runs on the day for the loss of 7 wickets to enter day 3 with a lead of 255 runs, and counting.
England’s impossible mission is a simple one on paper, but rather more daunting when under the spectre of those snow covered mountains of the Himalayas and in the face of the bowling attack of Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Ashwin and Ravi Jadeja: They first need to dismiss India’s final 2 wickets quickly for the addition of next to zero runs before scoring at least 255+ runs to make their hosts bat again AND score at least 450 2nd innings runs to make this Test Match a competitive affair.
There are 3 days left in this Test Match but they need to resurrect the spirit of Hyderabad, find a couple of century makers and even that may not be enough without the assistance of Tom Cruise and perhaps even an Exorcist.
See you in the morning!
Thanks for reading. I’ve penned my thoughts on every day of England’s winter tour to India and below you’ll find day one from each of the first four Test Matches in this series:
"India in the box seat after day 1 in Hyderabad"
"Jaiswal century edges India ahead on day 1 in Visakhapatnam"
"Milestones galore as India take charge on day 1 in Rajkot"
"Root grinds a priceless century for England on day 1 in Ranchi"