India rampage to thunderous victory in Rajkot
India v England, 18th February 2024.
I have officially aged another calendar year in this absurdist game we all call life during this Rajkot Test Match and I dare say, though he would be loathe to admit it to anyone, Ben Stokes may have aged a year or three too during the past four days in the Indian sunshine. At 33–3 his English revolutionaries had their hosts and cricketing counterparts on the ropes early on day 1 and had Joe Root taken a fairly rudimentary slip catch to dismiss Indian captain Rohit Sharma with the score on 47–3, who knows where, and in which direction, this sporting dance may have taken us. Instead, Sharma batted his way back into form with a match changing century and yet he won’t have been anywhere near consideration for the “Man of the Match” award as even Yashasvi Jaiwal’s incredible double century (his second such feat in the opening three matches of this series) wasn’t enough to eclipse Ravi Jadeja and his match changing 1st innings century, combined match bowling figures of 7 wickets for 95 runs and his magical spell of bowling today as his 5 wickets for just 41 runs ripped the heart and soul from the England batting order.
Aside from the opening hour of play on day 1 and Ben Duckett’s fantastical century in the final session of day 2, England haven’t so much had their backs to the wall but were nailed firmly to it by a dominant and rampant India team now taking a 2–1 series lead with them to Ranchi in five days time. Set 557 to win and over 100 runs in excess of the 418 scored by record holders the West Indies in 2003 and the highest ever 4th innings run chase for victory in the entire near two centuries of history wrapped around this grandest of all games, fanciful dreams were had of England rampaging their way to the greatest Test Match win of all time. Instead they folded like a pack of cards eerily reminiscent of so many England batting collapses of the past and an infamous December morning in Melbourne in 2021 when Scott Boland had the time of his life as the English “Poms” were ground into the Australian dust in 81 painful minutes.
"Ashes to Ashes" - Available via Amazon
"The Spirit of Cricket" - Available via Amazon
Another year older should see me another year to the wise but as I posited at the end of day 2, I was a believer and with a dominant day 3 England could bat India completely out of the game, setting up the historic win their opponents are now taking with them to Ranchi. But England collapsed and rather than parity on 1st innings then alone a huge lead, they found themselves this morning staring down the barrel of a run deficit of 322 before a severely increased and faintly ridiculous 557 runs to chase for an absurd if history shattering win. Yet I still believed as I’ve been a member of the Stokes/McCullum revolutionary cult since the beginning and hoped I’d have to disbelieve my own lying eyes one more time. Watching cricket through the night, night after cold English night with only an inexhaustible supply of tea and biscuits can do that to a man, even a man and fanatic of this incredible game in his 52nd year on Planet Starbucks.
There shall be no recriminations or questioning of their “Bazball” style for today’s humbling and dare I say humiliating defeat by a thumping and quite extraordinary 434 runs and second heaviest Test Match defeat of all time. They were simply outplayed by a thoroughly dominant India who demonstrated exactly why in just today’s play alone, scoring an additional 235 runs to stretch their lead to 557 before in just over 2 hours of play, bowling England all out for just 122. Mark Wood top scored with 33 after some lusty late innings blows to the boundary but England consistently collapsed to 28–4, 50–7 and 91–9 before his late intervention. A calamitous run out of Ben Duckett started the rot before Jasprit Bumrah removed his opening partner Zak Crawley and from 18–2 onward, the spinning trio of Ravi Jadeja, Ravi Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav went to work, snagged combined figures of 8 wickets for just 79 runs between them, and were damn near unplayable at times. There were no real rash shots or “Bazball” style (whatever that is) reckless attempts to attack the game. They simply weren’t allowed to by a roaring and rampaging Indian team on their way to a thoroughly dominant win and an utterly dispiriting defeat inflicted upon their English revolutionaries and visitors.
A historic win for the ages for India.
A humbling for a thoroughly defeated England.
Afterword
Ben Stokes: “Everyone has got a perception and opinion. The people in the dressing room are the opinions that really matter to us. Sometimes things don’t work out how we want them to. 2–1 down and two games left. We have a great opportunity for 3–2. We leave this game behind us and know we have to win the next two games to win the series”.
Rohit Sharma: “When you play Test cricket, it’s not played over two days or three days. We know the importance of staying in the game for five days. They put us under pressure, we’ve got class in our squad when it comes to bowling. The message was to stay calm, it’s easy to drift away from what you want to do. I’m proud of how we came back, and when that happens it’s a delight to watch”.
Thanks for reading. Here are my three daily journals from this Test Match and two books I’m immensely proud of:
"Milestones galore as India take charge on day 1 in Rajkot"
"Duckett century signals spectacular England fightback in Rajkot"
"Revolutionaries Routed in Rajkot"
"Ashes to Ashes" - Book Promotion
"The Spirit of Cricket" - Book Promotion
Thank you. I encountered the term due to Monty Python, via the sketch about the Australian philosophy professors meeting their new colleague from "Pommie Land"...
I wish I knew why the Australians call the English "poms". It must be some sort of local thing.