India's Headingley Woes: Breaking Down The Test That Got Away

It has been a Test match of incredible contrasts for India. A story of magnificently dominant batting at the top of the order, great partnerships that took them to positions of strength and could have so easily taken the match away from England, not once but multiple times. An incredible seven centuries in the match plus a 99, with five of those hundreds coming from 온라인카지노 batters, the first time ever such a feat had been achieved by a visiting team in England and only the fifth time overall in 148 years of Test cricket.

Four of the top five 온라인카지노 batters got hundreds at the top of the order, with Rishabh Pant absolutely standing out with a century in each innings, the first 온라인카지노 to have ever done that in England. The superlatives and the firsts just wouldn’t stop coming and if you had missed following this Test match, reading all this you could be pardoned for thinking that India had won it in a canter, by a mile and a half.

Lacklustre Lower Order

But then you would not know about the two incredible batting collapses, from those positions of strength. About the last seven wickets tumbling for 41 in the first innings as India plummeted from 430 for 3 to 471 all out and again from 333 for 4 to 364 all out in the second innings, with the last six wickets falling for just 31.

You wouldn’t know about England’s resilience and dogged persistence in finding ways to come back into the game when all seemed lost. Aided generously, apart from the two collapses, by India’s poor catching when England batted, which allowed them to chase down India’s massive first-innings total. To the extent that on the final morning of the Test match, they were looking at an improbable victory with 350 to get and all 10 second-innings wickets in hand, with a lot of quiet confidence.

And the fact that they had done it before in the recent past would have always been a source of worry for the young 온라인카지노 team, led by a 25-year-old skipper in his first match as Test captain.

Which just goes to prove yet again, how much of a team game Test cricket is, as opposed to incandescent individual brilliance over a short span of time.

It had been a run feast for the India in the first innings as they gleefully made first use of a placid Leeds wicket on a warm, sunny day with the ball not doing much, inexplicably put in by Ben Stokes. As former England captain Michael Vaughan said, “At Leeds when the sun is shining, with dry weather, you bat. I was staggered when he said he was going to bowl.”

Perhaps the thought was of cashing in on first-day nerves, but that idea backfired spectacularly, as the 온라인카지노 top-order made merry at their expense, plundering runs at will, all around the wicket.

As England’s optimism quickly faded, the 온라인카지노 openers settled into an easy rhythm with the bowling looked increasingly pedestrian on a flat track. KL Rahul looked particularly good at the start and was unlucky to miss out on the run feast when he edged a drive to Joe Root in the slips.

At the other end, young Yashasvi Jaiswal, comfortable and elegant as always, had reached a free flowing 45 at lunch and begun to look ominous.

The trend continued into the second and third sessions as well, as first Jaiswal and Shubman Gill and then Gill and Pant, put India in a commanding position by close of play. Jaiswal, who departed for yet another fine hundred, was severe on any width outside the off stump and the English bowlers gave him plenty. He lapped it up, crunching glorious square drives that rattled the fence time and again. But with four dropped catches in the field later, this will probably be a Test match that he would prefer to forget.

At the other end, Gill was stylish and correct as always, and their fluid, effortless stroke-making was a joy to watch.

Any doubts about the pressures of captaincy affecting the young skipper’s batting were quickly dispelled as he waded into the largely ineffective England bowling and by the end of the day’s play, was celebrating his first century in England with that by-now-customary, exaggerated bow of his.

Matching him stroke for stroke was Pant, steepling sixes into the crowd with relish!

Pant is one of the most exciting players in the world today, who believes in cashing in on every scoring opportunity, including some non-existent ones which he creates out of nowhere. His innings was a mix of conventional, sensible Test match batting and some of the outrageous stroke-making that is such a hallmark of his cricket.

Morphing Overhead Conditions

On the second day the conditions changed with passing showers and the floodlights were switched on. The height of the cloud cover always makes a difference to playing conditions in England, particularly to the amount of swing on offer and things can often change quickly and dramatically.

And that is where Test cricket is so different from the other forms of cricket and requires so much of sustained mental strength over different passages of play. And India were found wanting, losing seven wickets in a tumble as the ball started to swing under lights.

It was an unlikely collapse coming after a hugely dominant batting display over one and a half days. At 430 for 3 on the second morning, they should have batted England right out of the game, and the 471 they finally got was a good 100 runs short of where they should have been.

It took Jasprit Bumrah just six balls in the England first innings to induce an outside edge from Zak Crawley. He angled a delivery into the right hander from over the wicket, landing on a good length, around middle and off, opening him up as it pitched. Karun Nair, playing his first Test match in eight years, gobbled up the edge nicely at first slip, moving to his left.

It was a classic Bumrah dismissal. And everything seemed to be falling into place nicely.

But India would then drop Duckett twice, Ollie Pope once, Harry Brooke twice, coupled with a Bumrah overstep when a catch was finally taken. Absolute bounties that the England top-order gratefully utilised to the fullest. To say nothing of a tail that wagged merrily and got their side up to within six runs of the 온라인카지노 first innings total, cancelling out any advantage that the tourists had built up with their batting.

And when Bumrah was taken off for a rest, Prasidh Krishna went for over six runs an over and Siraj was not far behind, although he looked better in his second spell. Shardul Thakur was a mere spectator on the boundary line for a large part of the innings. Prasidh and Shardul were to pick up two quick wickets each in the England second innings, but by then it was too little, too late.

And suddenly the fears about an 온라인카지노 attack that didn’t look potent enough, seemed to be coming true.

In the 온라인카지노 second innings Jaiswal, no doubt weighed down by his nightmarish outing in the field, was soon walking back in a huge blow to India’s chances. Rahul however, was a joy to watch and fully capitalised on another great start. He ended up with a majestic 137 which ordinarily should have been enough to seal the match for India, coming as it did, in tandem with Pant’s effortless second hundred of the game. With those two at the wicket, India raced away to 333 for 4 and seemed well on the way to batting England out of the game, yet again.

And then came the second collapse, as India imploded spectacularly again, for the second time in three days. And on the fifth morning, they had a fight on their hands all over again.

A fight that increasingly turned into a lost cause as the England openers went on and on, as the bowling failed to make any impression.

Lots of takeaways for India from this game, lots to be proud of, but also lots of soul-searching to be done before they take the field in the second Test.

This was a match they should not have lost. It was a match we let slip out of our hands... literally!

The views and opinions expressed are those of the author. The author is a veteran Wing Commander of the 온라인카지노 Air Force, who has played Ranji Trophy for Services.