“Tea and Biscuits in India” Vol.4
Milestones galore as India take charge on day 1 in Rajkot
Thursday 15th February 2024
Oh the joys of Test Match cricket. Today saw the glorious spectacle of not one, not even two but three matches of the grand old game spanning the end of one cold and dark night here in England before finally ending way past the crack of dawn, the consumption of bacon and egg sandwiches and the clock ticking towards noon of another day that will end or indeed begin if you prefer, with this joyous sporting rigmarole commencing in earnest all over again.
Oh the joys of Test Match cricket.
With the evasion of the arrows of love from cupid’s bow came the first of today’s encounters in a faraway New Zealand and under the bluest of skies and the whitest of fluffy clouds akin to the beginning of an episode of “The Simpsons” and for five hours I was transfixed with a match building to a historic climax and a possible underdog win for the ages. Next it was to the Kiwi’s noisy neighbours of Australia for the first hour in Perth of the ladies Test Match between the hosts and their South African tourists before five hours after beginning my sporting quest of the day I crossed the Indian Ocean and nearly 5,000 miles at 4am for the real cricketing feast of the day and the opening day of the 3rd Test Match between a much changed India and a much rested England.
From 10pm on a cold wintry English evening to the piercing blue sunshine of Hamilton, Perth and Rajkot 13 and a half hours later. It was quite some day in the wide world of Test Match cricket, and 3 very differing examples of this quite wonderful game.
Act One: Can the ragtag underdogs shock the Kiwis?
Under the cartoon skies of “Seddon Park” in Hamilton we find an intriguing Test Match brilliantly poised and in progress after 2 full days play and, suffice to say, I’ve been watching this match avidly since Monday. Winning the toss on day 1, South Africa posted a reasonable 1st innings total of 242 before bowling their hosts all out by “Stumps” on day 2 for 211 and thus enjoying a somewhat unexpected lead on 1st innings of 31 runs entering today’s play. I say unexpected and, to bring everyone up to date, this South African team are an experimental team of sorts, a team in transition perhaps and with several members of their regular starting XI not travelling to play the heavy, heavy favourites New Zealand, have a brand new captain, both literally and figuratively, as well as a number of debutants including a 37 year old! New Zealand on the other hand have a rock solid starting XI and whilst not the powerhouse crowned World Test Champions in 2021, still boast the veteran skills of Kane Williamson, Tim Southee and Neil Wagner as well as bright young starlets Rachin Ravindra and Will O’Rourke.
Entering day 3 trailing by 31 runs, the hosts were safe in the knowledge that they couldn’t lose this 2 Test Match series having comprehensively won the opening match in beautiful Mount Maunganui by a thumping 281 runs and by the fall of the wicket of South Africa captain Neil Brand for a well played 34, they had his team and their touring visitors 39–3 and a total run lead at this stage of just 70 runs. What was even more remarkable at this very early stage in the day’s play was that the “Proteas” skipper had scored the vast, vast majority of his team’s runs this morning with 34 from a total of 39 and a template of sorts had been set for South Africa’s bright young starlet of their own, David Bedingham.
An accomplished county player with a mountain of runs to his name, I had the great pleasure of watching the 29 year old Bedingham make his debut for South Africa late last year in their one-off Test Match with India, scoring a half century on debut from 87 balls received. On this new year tour of New Zealand he scored 32 and 87 in their opening match defeat and today was their star of the show with a 3rd Test Match 50 before achieving his first ever century. As with his captain Brand, Bedingham would score the vast majority of his team’s runs in every batting partnership he enjoyed throughout the innings as first he reached the Lunch Break on a run-a-ball 34 (South Africa now led by 119) before reaching his half century with the innings score 100–3, his team leading by 131 runs and both he and Brand had scored 84% of the team’s total runs!
By the Tea Break, Bedingham had serenely reached 88 not out from a team total of 186–4 and shortly after this official break in play and just before I turned my attention to Perth and Rajkot, the 29 year old reached his maiden Test Match century from 127 balls received and with South Africa on a 2nd innings total of 209–5, they held an imposing lead of 240 runs. In my absence, and far more importantly the absence of a now departed Bedingham for 110, South Africa collapsed to 235 all out, losing their final 5 wickets for just 33 runs and whereas they could and should have set their Kiwi hosts a total run chase verging on the historic, they instead still set a stiff target for victory of 267.
Whether under cartoon skies or not, only once has a total of over 200 runs been successfully chased in the 4th innings at Seddon Park and that was over two decades ago. So with history against the hosts on their own turf they made a steady start to their run chase before out of form opening batsman Devon Conway fell to the second to last delivery of the day from Dane Piedt, a returnee to the fold of South African cricket and so epitomising the reinvention and evolution of the national team, and New Zealand now return on day 4 on 40–1, needing a further 227 runs to win whilst the ragtag underdogs need a further 9 Kiwi wickets for a shock victory for the ages.
Regardless, this Test Match must finish tomorrow and it’s number one on my viewing schedule come 10pm this evening.
Act Two: The agony and ecstasy of Alyssa Healy
Leaving the beautiful grass banks of “Seddon Park” and my dreams of pitching up there one day with a deckchair and a day of cricket in the New Zealand sunshine, I crossed the Tasman Sea to the furthest reaches of Australia and Perth, home of the “WACA” ground I remember so fondly from my first ever real time watching of cricket through the night from a long ago 1987. It was the England tour of captain Mike Gatting, the consecutive centuries of Chris Broad (father of England legend Stuart), a somewhat final hurrah for Ian Botham and England in their memory evoking pyjama blue one day cricket uniforms. I was 15, in love with a girl called Susan and fast coming off the rails following the death of my dear old Dad but we don’t have time today for a descent into such melancholy for we have the agony and ecstasy of Alyssa Healy to consider and first, a cricketing appreciation of Darcie Brown.
As you may imagine by now I watch more than a fair amount of Test Match cricket and recall watching and admiring the swing bowling skills of 20 year old Darcie Brown since her debut for Australia in 2021. Then just 17, she showed admirable nerve for a teenager in a team full of seasoned experienced professionals and I couldn’t help but admire her upright and correct bowling style as well as the prodigious amounts of swing her fast bowling produced and her wide enthusiastic smile was a constant joy to see. Watching live today and before departing for my final cricketing destination of the day, Darcie snagged the first 2 South African wickets to fall and at 5–2 I must also note that she also had 2 catches dropped off her bowling in just her opening 2 overs and could and really should have had 4 wickets to her name mere minutes into the day’s play!
Whilst South Africa recovered from the quite dreadful start of 5–2 to reach 33 runs before losing any further wickets, they then collapsed once more from 33–3 (a common score today as you’re about to discover) to 50–7 before a late innings rally was extinguished by Darcie who grabbed the final 3 wickets of the innings to finish with, in the cricketing vernacular, a “Michelle” or “Michelle Pfeiffer” or more simply a “5 fer” or 5 for 21.
5 wickets for the cost of just 21 runs could easily have been 6 or 7 but regardless, the visiting tourists had been, cricketing vernacular once more, “skittled” for an all out total of just 76.
In reply, Australia shockingly collapsed themselves to 12–3 but come the crisis, enter experienced veterans Beth Mooney and captain Alyssa Healy. Regular opening partners for the one-day and T20 international team, Mooney and Healy each passed a half century in a partnership worth 155 in just 30 overs before Mooney fell 22 runs short of a Test Match century on home turf. Joined now by Annabel Sutherland, who would notch a quick fire half century of her own from just 78 balls received to add to the 3 South African wickets she grabbed earlier in the day, the end of day honours fell to captain Healy who, after taking 2 catches with the wicket-keeping gloves and leading her team to bowling out their visitors for a paltry 76, stood on 99 not out and with the light closing in as the day was fast approaching its end, would surely scratch 1 further run into the score book for her maiden Test Match century in Australia?
Alas she presented a soft return catch to bowler Delmari Tucker and the agony was etched all over her face as well as he ex colleagues and contemporaries in the TV commentary box, and the Aussie captain trudged slowly back to the Pavilion with the sportingly soul crushing score of 99.
Tomorrow will see a new day in this Test Match and one fears it will also be its final one too. Australia stand overnight with a gargantuan lead on 1st innings of 175, Annabel Sutherland 54 not out and 5 wickets still remaining. I foresee the hosts adding at least another 100 runs on 1st innings, necessitating South Africa score at least 275+ runs to even make Australia bat again and with a certain Darcie Brown in prime form, I can’t see this happening and sadly, this Test Match will be over by “Stumps” tomorrow evening.
Thankfully, the same cannot be said for our third and final game of the day.
Act Three: Centuries from Sharma and Jadeja see India well ahead in Rajkot
In his first commentary stint of the tour, ex England spin bowler Graeme Swann spoke for the cricket connoisseur in all of us mad enough to sit up through a winter’s night watching England when he announced his own boyhood dreams of watching England “on the other side of the world through the night” and “wrapped in a duvet” and when the drinking of tea was mentioned he was almost speaking entirely to me or certainly for me. Minutes later he’d exclaim “The dream start continues for Tom Hartley” as the young spin bowler snagged a simple wicket and India, winning the toss and choosing to bat first on a placid, easy paced wicket were tumbling and stumbling to 33–3 and threatening to collapse. James Anderson and Mark Wood were bowling brilliantly in tandem and just 40 minutes into the day’s play, England, much to the consternation of India captain Rohit Sharma (the local TV coverage repeatedly fixed on his exasperation at the fall of every wicket) were firmly in the driving seat and about to “win” the first hour of play.
Sadly for the visiting tourists this would be the only hour or session of play in which they would gain the upper hand or have any control of the day’s play whatsoever and from a precarious 33–3, captain Rohit Sharma (52 not out) and new partner Ravi Jadeja (22 not out) would steer India to 93–3 at the Lunch Break, 185–3 at the Tea Break, and both men would rest at the break on the precipice of their own individual century milestones.
Man of the day Sharma, so devoid of runs in the series hence far would take his pre-Tea total of 97 quickly to his century post-Tea before becoming Mark Wood’s third wicket of the day and falling for a brilliantly made 131 from 196 balls received. He received two extra “lives” when on just 27 he was dropped by Joe Root at 1st Slip before in the very next over when on 29 he overturned an umpire’s decision to give him out LBW (Leg Before Wicket) from the bowling of James Anderson and with these additional cricketing lives, he notched a majestic century of extra, and very probably, costly, match changing runs.
Ravi Jadeja would be far more circumspect in his run accumulation than his captain as he inched to his half century from 97 balls received before finally, and seemingly very nervously, secured both his Test Match century from 198 balls received and notching his 3,000th career Test Match run in the process.
But this was not all.
As Jadeja, in the cricketing vernacular for the final time, “scratched around” in the (sorry, one final time) “nervous 90's”, he barely scored as he inched his way, single run by single run, to 99 not out. This was all a far cry from new partner and debutant Sarfaraz Khan who took his long awaited debut for his country with panache and aplomb, racing to a 48 ball half century, smashing 7 boundary 4’s and 1 boundary clearing 6 in the process and fulfilling all the excitable headlines written about the talented 26 year old from Mumbai. A star was quickly born today and then, calamity struck.
With Jadeja seeking that single run to reach his individual milestone, Khan, in his eagerness to help his teammate reach his century, took off for a run that was never there and sent back by Jadeja, was stranded way out of his crease when Mark Wood swooped in and with only one stump to aim for, hit is directly, uprooting it spectacularly from the ground, England had a gift wicket out of nothing, Jadeja was still 99 not out and Khan run out for a wonderfully played if heart breaking in its ending 62.
But day 1 belongs fairly and squarely to the hosts and with a total of 326–5 at “Stumps”, India have taken full advantage of a batter friendly wicket to pile on a substantial 1st innings total with a centurion still not out overnight and 5 wickets still remaining.
Tomorrow is another day and a somewhat special one for your favourite cricket correspondent as I’ll be celebrating being 52 not out in this strange game we all call life and I’ll be commemorating the day in an incredibly niche way by first dreaming of sitting on the grass banks surrounding “Seddon Park” in Hamilton, then watching the Australian ladies pile on the runs against their South African rivals in the memory evoking “WACA” of Perth before hoping England keep a rampant India below 400 1st innings runs in Rajkot.
3 games of Test Match cricket accompanied by oodles of tea and chocolate biscuits all whilst wrapped within a duvet to beat away the cold of an English winter’s night? Niche, but it’ll do for this cricket loving madman.
Then a stroll along the riverbank in the shadow of the world’s oldest iron bridge and a bag of piping hot chips with my favourite person in all the world.
Perfect.
“Milestones galore as India take charge on day 1 in Rajkot” can also be found tip-toeing from page 138 through to page 149 as well as acting as chapter number 9 in Act Two of my self-published book “Tea and Biscuits in India”, my third in a cricketing hat-trick of self-published tomes on the grandest of all games.
Here’s some other stuff I prepared earlier too.
"Tea and Biscuits in India" - link to Amazon
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.