India too strong for plucky England in Ranchi
India v England, 26th February 2024.
ENGLAND 353 all out and 145 all out
INDIA 307 all out and 192–5
India win by 5 wickets
OK I admit I got more than a little excited when 20 year old spinning sensation Shoaib Bashir snagged the consecutive wickets of Ravi Jadeja and Sarfaraz Khan to reduce India to 120–5 and still 72 runs shy of their victory target. England had chipped away all morning without any real tangible return and India were just 108 runs from taking a deserved 3–1 lead in this best of 5 series. Then a brilliant, game changing passage of play saw England eating “dessert after their lunch” according to Ravi Shastri, and the national team he decorated with his presence as both player and coach had collapsed from 99–1 to 120–5 either side of the Lunch Break, and as dawn was slowly breaking here in central England, I was reaching for another pack of chocolate biscuits.
And why not?
England were back in a game they were winning handsomely at the start of play yesterday only to be rank underdogs come the end of a chastening day. It’s the flow of the Test Match tides. So dominant to being so outplayed in a matter of a few sporting hours beneath India’s darkest of skies. England’s “Golden Arm” Joe Root accounted for Yashasvi Jaiswal before Tom Hartley bamboozled Rohit Sharma into a “double dismissal” as he was both caught AND stumped, a very rare and very pleasing oddity in this grandest of all games, before Shoaib Bashir dismissed Rajat Patidar courtesy of a flying reactionary catch from Ollie Pope and at the Lunch Break, England had cause for hope to spring eternal.
Two quick wickets from the spinning fingers of 20 year old Shoaib Bashir greeted the resumption of play after the Lunch Break, and with England enjoying their post lunch desserts and India still needing 72 further runs to win, I was getting all rather excited and opening yet another pack of chocolate biscuits. What? You should have seen the breaking of a dawn of a brand new day that I was witnessing, a red and purple haze hovering in the near distance and above an isolated hill of local renown known as “The Wrekin”. The confusion of colours had replaced the blackest of nights under a star filled sky and in the presence and the madness of an (almost) full moon.
Watching Test Match cricket through the night doesn’t tend to afford you the luxury of sleep and after 4 consecutive, albeit self-imposed nights of little to no sleep the walls begin to bend, you start seeing unique forms of losing your wicket I’d have LOVED explaining to my dear old Test Match cricket loving Mum, and this England team never fails to give you a reason to believe. With dawn breaking and a fresh cup of tea resting beside a newly opened pack of chocolate biscuits India were 120–5 and still 72 runs short of victory. From nowhere, England were now 5 wickets from victory themselves, very much back in a Test Match flowing on those beautifully unpredictable tides, and I was still a believer.
"Ashes to Ashes" - Available on Amazon
"The Spirit of Cricket" - Available on Amazon
Alas England lost a second Test Match in a row whereby they were thoroughly outplayed in the crucial crossover into the 3rd innings, an occasion often crowned as “Moving Day”. They lost both, spectacularly, both here and in Rajkot, and both whilst holding the whip hand in the contest. There will be no outlandish slurs cast on the way these revolutionaries play the game, and especially not here as once again they were outplayed in crucial phases of the game by an almost unbeatable India on their home turf. This was another mature performance and far away from the “Bazball” media creation. Joe Root scored a tremendous century. The team as a whole compiled an above par 1st innings total and whilst they were frustrated not to end the Indian innings sooner and with a bigger lead, they began yesterday as firm favourites only to end it 8 hours later miles behind and needing snookers.
The flowing tides of Test Match cricket rather swept England away yesterday.
To the victors belong the spoils and even a much changed India missing a backbone of national cricketing stars are still near unbeatable in home conditions. They have found a new wicket-keeper batsman in today’s headline hero Dhruv Jurel. His calming 39 not out from 77 balls received perfectly accompanied the steady ship sailed by Shubman Gilll on his way to 52 from 124 balls and another performance submitted for his permanent place as India’s number 3 batsman. Rohit Sharma isn’t going anywhere, or at least I hope he isn’t, and surely he’ll be invigorated further to continue playing into his 40’s if only to open the batting with his team’s bright young thing, Yashasvi Jaiswal. Welcome back a fully fit and happy Virat Kohli in front of Ravi Jadeja and Sarfaraz Khan (both desperate for their respective batting slots) today’s headliner Dhruv Jurel at 7 ahead of Ravi Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav and returning superstar Jasprit Bumrah replacing Mohammed Siraj, and India are putting together a team to compete in the here and now as well as the foreseeable future.
I’ve penned this journal entry with an end of tour feeling yet we have one final Test Match to look forward to in Dharamshala. Sometimes you just have to float on the cricketing tides. After four long nights under a full moon anything is possible. I predicted 4–1 India at the start of the tour whilst hoping for an exciting 3–2 England defeat. So providing the game isn’t abandoned due to rain or snow (yes, snow in India!) or a cricketing draw (unlikely with these teams) I’ll be a cricketing sage one way or the other come the middle of March.
“We didn’t have a chance in hell of even competing with India, but even today that wasn’t an easy win for India and I think they would admit that” proclaimed a proud Ben Stokes immediately after his team’s defeat. “I’m very proud of the way every player has thrown everything at India. No-one has ever taken a backward step.” Nor will they in Dharamshala where Rohit Sharma will await with an eager, confident, developing team desperate for another Test Match victory. The key word Sharma reiterated in his post-match interviews was “hunger” and “there’s no point playing those who do not have the hunger”, a pointed reference to the vast amount of cricket available and a desire to keep Test Match cricket sacrosanct. “The thing with Test cricket is that you get very few opportunities. If you don’t utilise them, they go away”.
Thanks for reading. Here are my daily recaps for days 1 through 3 from this Test Match:
"Root grinds a priceless century for England on Day 1 in Ranchi
"Bashir tightens the screw as England dominate in Ranchi"
"England in a spin. India now favourites in Ranchi Test"