It was another see-saw day of Test cricket at Edgbaston which ultimately ended with the game being finally poised as we head into the final 3 days of what is already a highly competitive series.
Ultimately though the day belonged to India or to be more precise to their Captain, Virat Kohli who scored a magnificent century to pull his team back from the brink of disaster.
Report on the day's cricket
England's innings was wrapped up in just 10 balls this morning with Sam Curran edging Mohammed Shami behind. 287 looked to be a below par score, particularly after the strong position that England had found themselves in and the powerful Indian batting line-up that they would have to overcome.
Openers Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan both looked in total control as they went about adding 50 runs in just 11 overs with Anderson and Broad struggling to find any consistent swing. Indeed England began to look a little desperate and even approached the umpires as early as the 8th over to see if they could get the ball changed for one that might just do a bit more. Stats on TV showed that India's opening bowlers had found twice as much swing as the English had managed in their first 10 overs.
Perhaps it was that the Vijay and Dhawan, in seeing off Anderson and Broad's opening assault felt their work was done and as such they let their foot off the gas just a little. The man to make them pay was 20 year old Sam Curran, playing in just his 2nd Test match. He struck first to remove Vijay with a ball that swung back and struck the right-hander in front of his stumps, with England using DRS to get the initial not out decision over-turned. KL Rahul, the man called into the side to bat at 3, thick edged his first ball through 4th slip for 4 before dragging his 2nd ball onto leg-stump. In the space of 3 balls, India's dominate looking start had evaporated and the pressure was now very much on India's Captain and Dhawan. For Dhawan though it proved to be too much, as he edged Curran to 2nd slip to leave India 59-3. The collapse was very similar to that which England suffered on the first day with KL Rahul and Dhawan particularly guilty in playing rash shots when the circumstances required calm heads and sound techniques. Kohli and Rahane survived through until lunch with the former being very watchful against James Anderson who bowled 10 overs straight in the morning session.
Ben Stokes was given the responsibility to open the bowling after lunch and he immediately rewarded Root's faith in him. Rahane who had looked solid against Anderson and Curran prior to lunch was suddenly hoping all over the crease as Stokes found a little more bounce from the Edgbaston pitch. Having played and missed a couple of times as well as having been given not out to a big LBW shout that England incorrectly failed to review , he finally knicked one to Jennings at 3rd slip. Rahane is something of an unsung talent within the India team and is particularly adept at making runs overseas so this was a very big wicket for England to have taken. Stokes followed that up with an absolute peach of a delivery that knocked Karthik's middle stump out of the ground to leave India wobbling at 100-5. All the while at the other end, locked in their own personal battle were Virat Kohli and James Anderson. Anderson bowled beautifully at Kohli, particularly after lunch, finding the edge on 3 occasions with each one just dropping short or flying wide of the men waiting in the slips. When the moment came for England though they weren't good enough to take it. Another Anderson ball on the 4th stump line and moving away encouraged Kohli into the drive with the nick presenting a regulation catch for Malan at 2nd slip who dropped it. That would have left India 100-6 and facing the prospective of giving up a minimum 100 run first innings lead.
Instead Kohli, as he had done on the 1st day with his run out of Root, made England pay for their mistake. At the other end wickets fell with regularity as Pandya, Ashwin and Shami went without offering too much resistance. However, the final 2 wickets in Sharma and Yadav did just enough when called upon to see out a few balls while Kohli went on to make a remarkable Test match century, the 22nd of his career and his first in England. When Shami was out with the score on 182-8, Kohli had 67 to his name. He added 35 for the 9th wicket with Sharma of which Kohli made 30 and then 57 for the last wicket with Yadav who himself made just a single. Just when it looked like a tiring English side would be truly put to the sword, Kohli sliced a Rashid delivery to backward point to be dismissed for 149, well over half of India's total of 274.
However, if anything Kohli's dismissal proved to be a piece of good fortune for India as it gave them a 20 minute burst against the England openers who had been in the field all day. Shami was given the new ball this time and while he clocked up some good pace and found swing his radar was lacking. Ashwin took the new ball at the other end and with 4 deliveries to go in the day's play produced another brilliant delivery to bowl Alastair Cook for 0 and leave England 9-1 in their 2nd innings. At the time of Cook's dismissal, I was holding my 2 week old son in my arms, pacing up and down the living room. This was both for his comfort (he seems to like the movement) and my nervousness. For a split second on turning back to look at the screen, I genuinely thought that the TV was just showing a replay of Cook's 1st innings dismissal, so similar were the 2 incidents to each others. Alas it wasn't to be and India had a valuable breakthrough.
Analysis of the day's cricket
While on paper the game looks evenly poised with England having a lead of 22 with 9 wickets in hand, in reality this has to go down as another day won for India and they will certainly feel that the momentum in the game is with them after that Kohli innings and the late wicket. England will need to come out tomorrow morning and resist this Indian bowling attack who will be pumped up, aggressive and feeding off the confidence of their talismanic Captain.
Kohli demonstrated that he is head & shoulders above any other batsmen on either side at the moment and possibly the world, with the mental toughness he showed today. Yes, critics might say he was lucky but what he did is stick to his game plan, fight tooth and nail to get through that pressure part of his innings and then have the talent to cash in towards the end of the day. It was a simply brilliant innings and it has laid down a marker for him to go on and dominate this series.
One idea that I felt England might have looked to use against Kohli was to bring Johnny Bairstow up to the stumps, particularly off the bowling of Anderson and Curran neither of whom are that quick. This would ensured that Kohli was unable to bat so far out of his crease which he did to successfully negate the swing that has been his downfall on many previous occasions in this country. Food for thought for England ......
England's batsmen will need to show the same mental toughness tomorrow in order to get themseleves into a winning position. Do they have it in their game? On the evidence of the first 2 days, no, I don't think they do. For me it's a case of this England team just not being in the habit of winning matches that is the real problem. In any sport, the successful teams know how to win and they believe that they will win. They take the big chances because they are ready for them and they have the personalities in their sides who thrive on those moments. I just don't see that kind of confidence and ruthlessness with this England team at the moment. Of course tomorrow is another day and it presents a great opportunity for an English batsman to stand up and say I'm going to play an innings that will put us in a commanding position.
How many England need in my opinion is fairly irrelevant as there is so much time left in this game that they can bat all of tomorrow and well into Saturday if they wish. As i've mentioned to various people on this platform, Edgbaston is really good cricket wicket. As Kohli showed today, you can score runs on it if you are willing to work hard but for the bowlers there is undoubtedly some encouragement as well. The last time I was actually at the ground live was to see the 2005 Ashes match, a game that England famously won by 2 runs. That too was a frenetic match which swung back and forth and had both teams grasping for victory on the 4th day. Could we be heading for a similar finish this year between England and India?
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