Kuldeep Yadav spins England out of control in Dharamshala
India v England, 7th March 2024.
ENGLAND 218 all out
INDIA 135–1 (trailing by 83 runs)
At 100–1 on the cusp of the Lunch Break, England had “won” the opening session of this fifth and final Test Match in the foothills of the Himalayas and were in almost complete control in beautiful Dharamshala. Two hours after the resumption in play after the first official break for the day they’d crumbled and collapsed under the weight of an incredible spell of mystery spin bowling from 29 year old Kuldeep Yadav and already face an arduous task to simply stay competitive in this Test Match. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. First we have the good news that your favourite cricket correspondent is the toast of the town and his new cricket club’s debut hero!
Despite an afternoon spent ambling along the River Severn in central England and admiring the oldest iron bridge in the whole wide world, I simply couldn’t sleep last evening. This is nothing new and after struggling for what seemed like an entire Test Match series to finally find the peace and solace of the sleep world I was startled awake by the shrill of a 3.30am alarm and from a dreamworld whereby I was a local hero once more. Dreams are strange beasts aren’t they? For at 3.29am I was walking around the boundary rope at my new cricket club a match winning hero and I distinctly remember, upon the shrill of that damn alarm, admiring the scoreboard and “Stephen Blackford 18 Not Out” illuminated for all to see. After taking a bagful of wickets on day one of our four day game (amateurs such as myself rarely if ever play multiple day games), my new team had matched the opposition’s 1st innings score on day two before on day three I had no doubt matched my day one feat of grabbing a bucketful of wickets once again. I don’t remember this part of the dream but as the hero of my own story, let’s go with it.
So onto day four and chasing a relatively modest target for victory my new team had collapsed in their run chase for victory leaving a teammate and myself batting in my usual slot of number 11 to grab victory from the jaws of a certain defeat. 18 undefeated runs later, my teammate and I are chaired from the field of play before freshly showered and strolling around the boundary edge after the match I can’t help but smile at the scoreboard, my individual achievement and my team’s last gasp victory.
Then the alarm dragged me wearily and sleepily back into the real world.
Dreams are strange beasts aren’t they?
Act One: England win the opening session. Just.
After winning the toss at the almost universally agreed most beautiful setting for a cricket ground in all the world with the snow capped mountains of the Himalayas a perfect backdrop behind the vibrant red coloured Pavilion and multi coloured seats of the HPCA Stadium, England captain Ben Stokes had no hesitation whatsoever in deciding to bat first on a wicket described by ex England spin bowler Graeme Swann as a “belter” of a wicket for batting. On the milestone occasion of 100 Test Matches for both Ravi Ashwin and Jonny Bairstow, the predicted sleet and snow had not materialised and whilst unseasonably cold for players and a huge contingent from England who had flown in especially for this Test Match and the exploration of the nearby hills and mountains, I quickly wrapped myself in a warming duvet with my first cup of tea of the morning, a chocolate biscuit or three and enjoyed a masterclass of pure batting style, technique and run accumulation from England opener, Zak Crawley.
Whilst opening partner Ben Duckett rather “scratched around” before finally finding his feet and then surrendering his wicket to a magnificent running catch from Shubman Gill that presented Kuldeep Yadav his first wicket of 5 today, Crawley survived a close TV umpire review when on 29 in an otherwise faultless and dominating 50 run partnership with Duckett (their 5th such partnership of the series) before surviving another TV review when on 38, reaching his half century from 64 balls received before resting at the Lunch Break 61 not out. I have long championed Crawley’s ability, upright and “correct” batting style and I marvelled at a beautiful 2 hour’s of batting from the 26 year old from Bromley in Kent. He continues to be England’s top run scorer during this tour with his 4th 50+ score and 14th overall in a Test Match career that with the avoidance of injury can only soar into the stratosphere in the coming decade and more. The same can be said for England’s number 3 Ollie Pope but today, he rather let his team down and from his downfall onward, England spiralled quickly to collapse.
First things first, Pope was beaten by a beauty of a delivery from Kuldeep Yadav when on 11 that saw him stumped by Dhruv Jurel and the England vice-captain yards out of his crease. It was a beauty of a delivery. But with the clock ticking down to the Lunch Break and mere seconds from this 40 minute break in play, surely Pope should have simply, in the cricketing vernacular, “shut up shop” for the break, not “danced down the wicket”, and taken his 11 not out runs with him and rested comfortably beside Crawley at Lunch and their team 100–1. That would have been an almost perfect morning for the visitors. Instead, a rush of blood to the head saw England winning the opening session, just, but 100–2 was much more of an even outcome as England once more had a match in this series in their dominating grasp and 2 hours of play later, they’d be tumbling to complete collapse once more.
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Act Two: Kuldeep Yadav spins England to distraction
For 37 runs in the afternoon session, Zak Crawley and new partner Joe Root serenely accumulated a burgeoning partnership that saw Crawley gifted an extra “life” when on 61 and India captain Rohit Sharma refusing to acquiesce to the adamant appeals from Sarfaraz Khan at the “Short Leg” position that he’d feathered a tiny edge into his scampering, scrambling and diving hands. He had. Crawley played a batsman’s poker face. Sharma refused to refer it to the TV umpire, and the young man escaped with his wicket intact. But as I and Graeme Swann dreamed of a dominant century that would set England on the way to a huge 1st innings total, Kuldeep Yadav had other ideas with another of those beautiful spinning deliveries that pitched around Crawley’s off stump before spinning through his advancing attacking shot and crashing into his leg stump. “The brilliance of Kuldeep Yadav” exclaimed Swann before a crushing summing up of “It won’t be a century for Crawley”. The England opening batsman had once again scored a half century, had once again advanced into the 70’s (79) and England were once again on the road to a humiliating batting collapse.
The onset of the collapse followed a brief, quick fire and thrilling 38 run partnership between Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root but Bairstow’s departure for a rapid 29 from just 18 balls received left England 175–4 and just 12 deliveries later, they were 175–6 having added zero to their innings total and losing both their past and present captains in the process. Ravi Jadeja accounted for Joe Root that brilliantly trapped him “dead” and “plumb” in front of his stumps for a resiliently made 26 before Kuldeep Yadav repeated the exact same trick, and even more spectacularly, to dismiss current captain Ben Stokes for a “duck”. 8 team runs later saw the departure of Tom Hartley and Mark Wood in the space of 3 balls and England, so dominant at 100–1 on the cusp of the Lunch Break, were collapsing on the cusp of the Tea Break at 183–8.
In under 2 hours of play England had lost the heart of their batting order to Kuldeep Yadav and now half of their batting “tail” to Ravi Ashwin for a paltry 83 runs.
Act Three: India pile on the misery for a bamboozled England
England reached the Tea Break on 194–8 before being indebted on the resumption of play to a 35 run partnership between Ben Foakes and Shoaib Bashir that ended cruelly for Foakes and then the innings entire for England on 218 all out. Foakes unluckily “played on” to his stumps after scoring 24 before Ravi Ashwin wrapped up the innings with his 4th wicket just 3 balls later by dismissing James Anderson and England hadn’t so much been bowled out but, if you’ll permit me, been bamboozled out by the mystery spin of Kuldeep Yadav (5 wickets for 72 runs from 15 overs) and Test Match celebrating centurion Ravi Ashwin (4 wickets for 51 runs from 11 overs).
Kuldeep Yadav had ripped the heart from the England batting order.
Ravi Ashwin had mopped up the tail.
England had collapsed from 100–1 to 218 all out on a “belter” of a wicket.
Any hopes of James Anderson and Mark Wood repeating the trick with the new ball of Indian counterparts Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj by bowling difficult to score tight, swinging and seaming deliveries quickly evaporated in 7 rather uneventful overs before Indian opening batsmen Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal smashed their way to a century opening partnership in just 20 overs. Although Jaiswal perished soon after for a run-a-ball 57, captain Sharma remains not out overnight on 52 and accompanied by Shubman Gill will return in the morning with their team just 83 runs adrift on 1st innings and unless England have a dream opening session tomorrow, India will be far ahead and over the Himalayan mountains and into the cricketing distance come the Tea Break tomorrow afternoon.
England need a dream morning.
I wonder what dreams I have in store for me later.
I sure hope they’re far sexier than last night’s version!
See you tomorrow.
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"