Done without fuss
Toss, turners become irrelevant as India surge to 2-0 lead over England.
In Mohali: Parthiv Patel went inside-out and chipped Gareth Batty over covers for a boundary. He took a small jump and punched the air. There was a hug from his batting partner and captain Virat Kohli.
The eight-wicket win with almost an hour and a day to spare ensured India can enjoy Yuvraj Singh’s wedding reception at night and allow themselves a hangover. This Test shattered myths.
The Mohali surface was like a well-laid highway. No puff of dust, no rough patches or cracks, nothing too worrying about the consistency of the bounce either. Yes, it was a bit slow but you certainly can’t blame the curator for a slow wicket in India.
The two wins in this series and earlier against New Zealand have ensured that no one can blame India of recording wins on made-to-order wickets.
Toss is not all
When England captain Alastair Cook chose to bat, he must have been elated. But he was among the batsmen who messed it up — they managed just 283. In their second innings too, Joe Root and Haseeb Hameed — playing with a broken little finger in the left hand — showed that it was possible to negotiate the Indian bowlers if you were ready to play the waiting game.
Can spin and bat
India were in a spot of bother on Day Two at 204/4. The spin trio of R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Jayant Yadav hit fifties as India reached 417. They also picked 12 wickets among themselves in the Test. Did the confidence from their batting efforts rub on their bowling? That’s anybody’s guess. The lowerorder runs also calmed the dressing room.
Cranking it up
It’snot often one can say that. Not only in this Test but generally in the series they have out-bowled England’s fast bowlers. They have bowled at better speeds, swung the ball better (both conventional and reverse), delivered more potential wicket-taking balls and used the short ball better. Yesterday, Mohammad Shami dismissed Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid with short balls.
Archives welcome
As someone informed the gap between two Test fifties for Parthiv Patel — 12 years, 43 days — is the longest for an Indian player. Patel wasn’t sensational behind the stumps, he did drop a few, but as a makeshift opener he was more than convincing.
A 42 in the first-innings and 67 in the second were invaluable — he actually had the audacity to upper cut an England fast bowler. Now who plays in the Mumbai Test if Wriddhiman Saha is fit should be a happy headache for the team thinktank.
Injuries...Not again
India should know a thing or two about this aspect. During their 4-0 loss in 2011, they lost Zaheer Khan in the first session of the first Test. As the series progressed, India saw Gautam Gambhir and Harbhajan Singh miss matches due to injury.
On this tour, James Anderson and Stuart Broad have missed one Test each while Haseeb Hameed has been ruled out of the next two Tests. Such injuries not only hit a visiting team’s plans but also the morale during long tours.
The visitors are already in bit of a selection mess. They have two left-hand top-order batsmen in the form of Ben Duckett and Gary Ballance who are unlikely to succeed against Indian off-spinners.
In Mohali: Parthiv Patel went inside-out and chipped Gareth Batty over covers for a boundary. He took a small jump and punched the air. There was a hug from his batting partner and captain Virat Kohli.
The eight-wicket win with almost an hour and a day to spare ensured India can enjoy Yuvraj Singh’s wedding reception at night and allow themselves a hangover. This Test shattered myths.
Bad wicket not needed
The Mohali surface was like a well-laid highway. No puff of dust, no rough patches or cracks, nothing too worrying about the consistency of the bounce either. Yes, it was a bit slow but you certainly can’t blame the curator for a slow wicket in India.
The two wins in this series and earlier against New Zealand have ensured that no one can blame India of recording wins on made-to-order wickets.
Toss is not all
When England captain Alastair Cook chose to bat, he must have been elated. But he was among the batsmen who messed it up — they managed just 283. In their second innings too, Joe Root and Haseeb Hameed — playing with a broken little finger in the left hand — showed that it was possible to negotiate the Indian bowlers if you were ready to play the waiting game.
Can spin and bat
India were in a spot of bother on Day Two at 204/4. The spin trio of R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Jayant Yadav hit fifties as India reached 417. They also picked 12 wickets among themselves in the Test. Did the confidence from their batting efforts rub on their bowling? That’s anybody’s guess. The lowerorder runs also calmed the dressing room.
Cranking it up
It’snot often one can say that. Not only in this Test but generally in the series they have out-bowled England’s fast bowlers. They have bowled at better speeds, swung the ball better (both conventional and reverse), delivered more potential wicket-taking balls and used the short ball better. Yesterday, Mohammad Shami dismissed Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid with short balls.
Archives welcome
As someone informed the gap between two Test fifties for Parthiv Patel — 12 years, 43 days — is the longest for an Indian player. Patel wasn’t sensational behind the stumps, he did drop a few, but as a makeshift opener he was more than convincing.
A 42 in the first-innings and 67 in the second were invaluable — he actually had the audacity to upper cut an England fast bowler. Now who plays in the Mumbai Test if Wriddhiman Saha is fit should be a happy headache for the team thinktank.
Injuries...Not again
India should know a thing or two about this aspect. During their 4-0 loss in 2011, they lost Zaheer Khan in the first session of the first Test. As the series progressed, India saw Gautam Gambhir and Harbhajan Singh miss matches due to injury.
On this tour, James Anderson and Stuart Broad have missed one Test each while Haseeb Hameed has been ruled out of the next two Tests. Such injuries not only hit a visiting team’s plans but also the morale during long tours.
The visitors are already in bit of a selection mess. They have two left-hand top-order batsmen in the form of Ben Duckett and Gary Ballance who are unlikely to succeed against Indian off-spinners.
