Shubman Gill bats England into an impossible mission
India v England, 4th February 2024.
India 396 all out and 255 all out
England 253 all out and 67–1 (332 runs to win)
Act One: England’s morning but India surge ahead
Commencing day 3 on 28–0 and holding a healthy lead of 171 runs, India made the worst possible start and England, and their talismanic veteran fast bowler James Anderson, the exact opposite. Needing quick wickets and inroads into the Indian batting order, Anderson knocked over Rohit Sharma’s off stump without the Indian skipper adding to his overnight total of 13 and mere minutes later, snagged the outside edge of Yashavsi Jaiswal’s bat and into the grasping hands of Joe Root at 1st Slip. The Indian openers had added just 2 runs to their overnight total and at 30–2, England had made the perfect start to the day and Anderson had his 694th and 695th all time Test Match wickets to stand just 5 away from an incredible career milestone and just 14 more away from eclipsing the late and very great Shane Warne as the second highest wicket taker in the entire history of this, the grandest of all games.
Suffice to say Anderson was magnificent as usual and unlucky not to snag a third wicket of the morning before relinquishing control of the ball to his junior spinning partners in Shoaib Bashir, Rehan Ahmed and Tom Hartley and whilst I’m sure captain Ben Stokes would’ve loved to continue bowling Anderson all morning long, this was as impracticable as was the frustration that his fourth part-time spinning option Joe Root had to leave the field with an injured finger and so already behind the game and desperate for further quick Indian wickets, Stokes had to turn to three spin bowlers barely out of their teens and look for a dash of luck that would long evade his energetic team.
Today’s man of the day Shubman Gill would be the recipient of that dash of luck as he survived two incredibly close LBW (Leg Before Wicket) appeals and referrals to the TV Umpire, one of which was only referred on advice from partner Shreyas Iyer, but inch by inch and run by run the two Indian batsmen reached the mid-session Drinks Breaks unbeaten and a blossoming partnership that had seen Gill table 27 runs and Iyer 18. Where Gill was counting his cricketing lives as well as his blessings, Iyer was unrushed and untroubled until bogged down and unable to score past 29, he tried to hit Tom Hartley straight for a boundary 6 and instead screwed a sky high catch that saw England captain Ben Stokes scampering backwards and sideways before taking, and holding onto, a remarkable tumbling catch. Another great catch soon followed, albeit altogether different, as wicket-keeper Ben Foakes took a sharp chance behind the stumps from the inside edge of Rajat Patidar’s bat, the 30 year old had failed with the bat once more by only scoring 9, Rehan Ahmed had a deserved wicket, and India were now 122–4 with a total lead of 265 runs. 8 runs later, India reached the Lunch Break without any further loss of wickets and especially so Shubman Gill who’d reached his half century from just 60 balls received and rested at the break 60 not out from 78 balls.
It was undoubtedly England’s morning but India had still racked up a further 102 runs in the session to stretch their overall lead to 273 runs.
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Act Two: Gill the Centurion
By the mid-session break for drinks this Test Match appeared all but over as a contest. In the hour’s play since the resumption after Lunch, Shubman Gill had brilliantly smashed his way from 60 to 97 not out and all whilst being ably assisted by Axar Patel who continues to defy his critics on the TV commentary team by staking his place to bat at number 6 in this India team with a carefree 33 not out. The pair had added 76 runs in the hour’s play to stretch the overall lead to an imposing 349 but yet again the official break in play saw a change in luck on the resumption of play on the other side.
Gill would reach his century, and deservedly so, from just 132 balls received and all whilst scoring 11 boundary 4’s and 2 boundary clearing 6’s on his flamboyant way. But he would only add a further 4 runs to his milestone before trying to reverse sweep Shoaib Bashir and in the process, gloving a looping catch into the grateful and similar gloved hands of wicket-keeper Ben Foakes. Referred to the TV Umpire, the gloved catch was as obvious as was the dismissal of his partner Axar Patel just 9 runs later for a well played 45. He too would refer his dismissal to the TV Umpire, and a delivery from Tom Hartley that scuttled along the wicket thus demonstrating the growing variable bounce that is slowly becoming more apparent and an ever present danger to every batsmen from hereon in this match.
After their swashbuckling run accumulation in the first hour of this session, India would only add a further 29 runs in the second as they edged their way to an innings score of 227–6 at the Tea Break and a total lead at this stage, and a near unbeatable one it has to be noted, of 370 runs.
Act Three: England begin their impossible mission
Today’s third and final session was a mixture of the bizarre and the brazen, the old and the new of Test Match cricket, and a revolutionary England team chasing the impossible once more. India began the session tentatively, barely scoring and immediately losing the wickets of Srikar Bharat and Kuldeep Yadav and had Zak Crawley held onto a rudimentary catch at 1st Slip from the bat of Ravi Ashwin, England could have cleaned up the Indian innings in a matter of minutes. But Crawley dropped Ashwin when on just 4 and nearly an hour later, an hour of strangely bizarre old school cricket as Ashwin tried to “farm” the strike and protect the final wickets of Jasprit Bumrah and Mukesh Kumar, he added 25 further runs before both he and Bumrah departed in quick fashion to end India’s 2nd innings on 255 and a thumping lead of 398.
Needing a near-on and history suggesting impossible 399 runs to win, England naturally commenced their run chase in customary and brazen fashion as both Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett dismissively dispatched Mukesh Kumar repeatedly to the boundary on their way to a second 50 run opening partnership of the match. The only fly in the England ointment came almost immediately and the dismissal of Ben Duckett for a run-a-ball 28 and a brilliant running and diving catch from wicket-keeper Srikar Bharat from the bowling of Ravi Ashwin. Rather than sending in regular number 3 Ollie Pope for the handful of deliveries left in the day’s play, England sent in “Night Watchman” Rehan Ahmed, who promptly crashed 2 boundary 4’s, rotated the strike with Zak Crawley and was anything but the traditional block and defence expected of a Night Watchman. This England team, under those revolutionary mavericks of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum are not very keen on the staid and traditional!
So chasing 399 to win, England end day 3 on 67–1 needing a further 332 runs for victory with 9 wickets remaining. Here are some cricketing hors d’oeuvres ahead of your 3.30am alarm call in the morning:
If successful, this will be the 5th highest 2nd innings run chase in the entire history of Test Match cricket, an almost doubling of England’s highest ever successful run chase in India set back in a long ago 1972 and 120 more runs than record holders the West Indies who hold the highest visiting run chase in India with 276.
History, past or present, traditional or revolutionary, is against England.
Will Zak Crawley turn his 29 not out into a big, match winning century?
Has Ollie Pope another match winning century in his locker?
Will Joe Root bat?
Will it come down to skipper Ben Stokes to guide his team over the line?
Or will Jasprit Bumrah blow the visitors away and restore cricketing order?
Perhaps Ravi Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel will spin the hosts to a comfortable win?
Despite avidly chronicling the Stokes/McCullum revolution I can’t help but write them off as I did yesterday, even in spite of watching their young team rack up 500 runs in a day in Pakistan on their way to a 3–0 Test triumph, outplaying New Zealand on their own down under turf at the start of 2023 and coming as close as can be to wresting the Ashes urn away from the grasp of Australia this Summer.
The alarm is set for 3.30am and I’m writing them off again as the history of this great game resists flights of sporting fancy such as this.
But here’s to James Anderson blocking at one end as his captain Ben Stokes rattles the winning runs tomorrow and the revolutionaries make yet more eye watering cricketing history.
Thanks for reading. As well as treating yourself to an early Christmas present with the books linked above, please feel free to visit my extensive archives here as I pen my rambling thoughts on other matters than just the grand old game of cricket!
Ah. Just like the CBC got stripped of most of its sports coverage by the charlatans at Rogers.
Well, maybe Sky or TNT could use it.
I was thinking of it as an ad slogan the BBC could use.