CRICKET:A HEARTBREAKING YET BEAUTIFUL GAME.
CRICKET: A HEARTBREAKING YET BEAUTIFUL GAME
After the 3rd test between India and England... I was forced to realize that even if you are giving your absolute best and are on top of the game or in life, small moments from the past and a little bit of less luck on your side can haunt you and bring you down.
India being on top for 13/15 days of cricket played in this series, scoring a lot more aggregate runs than England in the 3 tests[2295>1945], hitting 3 more individual 100s[8>5]and taking the same no. Of wickets[55] at a lower average[36.05<42.6] are still somehow 2-1 down in the series.
It's ironic how everyone trolled the commentators for using the word 'Slope' a lot, but when Siraj Middled the ball off Bashir, he got bowled due to the SLOPE.
This is the Review of the narrowest and most thrilling match of the Lords Cricket Ground [In terms of runs{22}].
BATTING:
In the 1st innings, England started steadily with an opening partnership of 43 and then soon lost both the openers for a span of a run and an over of Nitish Kumar Reddy...Then came in Ollie Pope and Joe Root, who stitched a steady 109-run partnership until Pope fell to Jadeja, the 1st ball after lunch... then came in Harry Brook, who wasn't able to stand up against the World no.1 Bumrah and got out for just 11. England, being 172-4, witnessed a saviour in Joe Root and Stokes, who also stitched an 88-run partnership where on Day 1 Root was 99* overnight... They then got out when England went from 260-4 to 271-7... Then came a match-defining 84-run partnership between Brydon Carse and Jamie Smith where Carse was dropped by KL Rahul at slips at the initial stages of his innings...and England went on to score 387 all out with 50s from both Carse and Smith. This batting innings witnessed England going away from their approach BAZBALL and taking time to settle, respecting good balls and all in all playing according to the conditions with them scoring at a Run Rate of 3.44.
India started with losing Yashasvi at just 13... then came another 50+ partnership between Karun and KL... Karun who has mostly came out to bat early every batting innings and negated the new ball very well once again failed to convert his start and got out after scoring a good looking 40...where he looked fine until the wicket ball...then came Captain Gill who fell felon to Woakes who brought the keeper up and did not let him negate swing resulting Gill to be out on 16. Pant with his injured finger, along with KL, made a 141-run partnership where once again Rahul was the calmness amidst the fiery wizardry of Pant...then just before lunch, Pant got run out taking the most unnecessary single ever changing the course of the game which then went on to becoming one of the biggest match-defining moments of the game.KLR completed his 2nd century at Lords and then got out at slips to Shoaib Bashir...Walk in the lower order led by Sir Ravindra Jadeja, making his 3rd 50 in a row, eventually scoring 74 along with Reddy's 30 and Sundar's 23...Akashdeep getting saved twice in an over of Woakes through DRS was something funny 😄 ...A concern that came out was Sundar not able to farm strike with tail enders and eventually not able to maximize with India scoring only 13 runs of their last 10 overs, preventing them from getting a lead with them being bowled out on 387.
2nd innings started with a lot of spice and drama with Crawley not wanting the 2nd over to be bowled... hence wasting time, and in response Gill and co. going after him... this completely changed the dynamics of the game leading into Day3. There’s not much to talk about England's 2nd innings other than Root's fighting 40, along with handful contributions from Stokes[33] and Bashir coming out to bat with a broken finger, demands nothing but sheer respect. helping England reach 192 and setting India a target of 193.
The Indian 2nd innings was about falling and then trying to get up... it was about character, fight, determination, and resilience. 193 was looking easy but was always gonna be tricky on a Day 4 and 5 track which had all on offer ... turn, uneven bounce, swing, and much more...India started with Jaiswal getting out playing a rash shot, and just when things were looking steady, Karun offered no shot and got LBW to Carse after a 36-run stand with KL. Gill and Akashdeep soon got out before the end of the day's play, and India were stranded at 58-4 with KL not out. The next day India lost 3 quick wickets in just 30 mins with Sundar[0], KL[39] and Pant[9] leaving India at 82-7... from then on it was a Fight... a fight of respect, character and your country. A gritty 30-run stand between NKR and Jadeja, where NKR fell once again for just 13 in 53 balls, leaving India at 112-8. Then came THE GREAT INDIAN FIGHT... Bumrah resisting the English lineup facing 54 deliveries which included a smack off to 4 to Archer between Long on and Deep mid wicket... his resistance eventually came to a halt courtesy a short delivery by Stokes... Jadeja, making 4 50s in a row, not taking out his sword as he knew the job was far from done... he kept on grinding hard to find runs even though all the fielders were placed at the fence... Siraj, toiling hard, taking blows on the body and then getting out in the unluckiest manner ever... with Jadeja staring and stranded not out at one end was heart-wrenching. Salute to the effort put in by these 3 for their country... Jadeja deserves the respect he always needed.
BOWLING:
India's 1st bowling innings started with a wicketless 1st spells by Bumrah and Akashdeep, among whom Bumrah extracted swing and was a bit unlucky, whereas Akashdeep took some time to adapt to the conditions. Then came the double wicket 13th over of NKR, who removed both the openers caught behind, where he extracted great swing, and a spell where he showed great improvement with his line and length. Later, just after lunch, came Jadeja getting Pope with great turn on the ball, breaking a 109-run stand between Root and Pope...Harry Brook then got out to Bumrah through a magical delivery nipping back-in and rattling the stumps winning the World No.1 battle...then after keeping Root 99* overnight and an 88-run partnership between Stokes and Root...came the Bumrah destruction where he took 3 wickets in a span of just 2 overs getting Stokes, Root and Woakes leaving England stranded from 260-4 to 271-7. Then, came according to me another match-defining moment where amidst a great Bumrah spell and other bowlers too extracting swing and bounce... the demand for a ball change happened and the new ball which came was much older than 10 overs and extracted 3.6 times less swing than the previous one... Why Fix Something When it Ain't Broken?... Then once again the inability to remove the tail was on display as India took the last 3 wickets for 116 runs where Siraj took the duo of Smith and Carse and Bumrah got his 5-fer with Archer's wicket with which he became the Indian bowler with most overseas 5-fers[13] surpassing Kapil dev[12] bowling England out for 387.
England started their 1st innings by removing Jaiswal early, courtesy Archer making a comeback...Later, Karun was removed courtesy Stokes breaking a 61-run stand and Root becoming the player with the most catches in test cricket[211]... A highlight was the tactical genius of bringing the keeper against Gill while Woakes was bowling, preventing Gill from stepping outside and negate swing where he eventually fell bate to him for 16. Then, after a 141-run stand, Pant was run out by Stokes's fielding brilliance at the stroke of lunch, which changed the course of the game... just after his 100 KL fell to Bashir caught at slips, who later had his finger broken through a fiery shot by Jadeja...Stokes bowling a long 7-8 over spell pushing his body beyond limits, something he would do again in the 2nd innings, got Reddy in the process and created many chances... they were also able to restrict Sundar from scoring runs with the tail eventually getting India all out also for 387.
The 2nd innings Indian bowling was fire... where no bowler let any batter settle with Bumrah and Siraj taking 2 a-piece, 1-each for Reddy and Akashdeep, but the highlight was the off-break magic of Washington Sundar, who proved that his selection was correct by taking 4 wickets all being bowled, showing he wasn’t dependent on anyone. He took the trio of Root, Stokes, and Smith along with Bashir...Another tactical genius was when Akashdeep had got smacked by Brook in one over where scoop was played ... then fine leg was made finer forcing Brook to sweep... where as a result he got bowled and Akashdeep got a wicket.
The highlight of the English bowling innings was the massive 2...9-10 over spells by Captain Stokes and Archer's comeback... where once again the 14th July connection was shown... later Bashir coming out to bowl with a broken finger was a sight of courage, respect and bravery... resulting in England winning by a narrow-margin of 22-runs.
PAST HAUNTS:
India gave away 6[4 byes] in the 2nd innings which resulted in 24 extras and eventually India's losing margin was 22-runs... Rahul dropping Carse resulted in 35-40 extra runs... a well-set Pant getting run out on 74 costed again a 40-50 run lead... changing a swinging and helpful ball for a ball which they got being much older and much less swing made England go from 271-7 to 387 all out.
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