Option A for Bazball question

Deepankar Sharda

ribune News Service

Dharamsala, March 9

Nobody wanted to leave the picturesque venue — well, at least not that quickly!

Unsurprisingly, a ruthless India scripted a fitting end to an apt India-England five-Test series with an innings and 64-run victory inside three days of the final Test today.

Throughout the series I have gone to different actions, speeds and releases. India is different, each ground has a challenge. I am least bit insecure about what people feel about me. — R Ashwin, India off-spinner

On a bright balmy day at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association stadium, England’s was nothing but gloomy — thanks to a fifer by Ravichandran Ashwin in his 100th Test. It was all over by afternoon as the tourists were shot out for 195 with only Joe Root (84) being the lone bright spot.

India, already 3-1 up, ticked it up to 4-1 and grabbed crucial World Test Championship points to leapfrog New Zealand in the table.

“England came here with a very experienced batting line-up. And, we had to counter it with our best. This is where our bowlers took charge and the spinners fought well. We dominated the entire series,” India coach Rahul Dravid reckoned.

Dominate they did, and it reflected in their series report card as it was the second instance in the series where they won by such a huge margin following the Rajkot hammering.

Ashwin the game-changer

In the morning, the visitors took less than 20 minutes to wrap up the hosts’ innings for a deficit of 259 runs. Stalwart James Anderson reached the much-awaited milestone of becoming the first fast bowler to claim 700 Test wickets, when he dismissed Kuldeep Yadav (30) caught behind.

But once the new ball was tossed to Ashwin (5/77), the joy was rather short-lived. The off-spinner, who finished with a match haul of nine wickets, blew away the top-order.

118

Test wins for India in India. These are the third-most home Test wins for any team, one more than S Africa’s 117. This also was the 3rd instance of India winning four matches in a Test series.

700

Wickets for James Anderson in Test cricket. He is the first pacer to register 700 Test wickets, and only the third player overall to achieve this milestone, after Muralidaran (800) and Shane Warne (708)

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Players should be heard: Dravid on tight BCCI schedule

Dharamsala: At a time when questions have been raised on a tight BCCI domestic schedule, India head coach Rahul Dravid put his weight behind the players, saying “they should be heard”.

“If the players are raising some issue, it should be listened to. It’s not easy in a country like India (in terms of travel) to play back-to-back matches. If there’s a voice, it must get proper hearing,” said Dravid.

“There should also be a review to follow, if some tournaments are even needed or not. We have got some excellent results from domestic cricket. However, if there’s a problem it should be solved,” he added.

Recently, Shardul Thakur had pointed out a few days’ gap between knockout matches during the Ranji Trophy which could help them to recover and perform better.

Meanwhile, Dravid also supported BCCI’s incentive of Rs 45 lakh per game to all those who would play 75 per cent or more of the scheduled red-ball games in a particular season. “Hope money is not going to be the incentive to play Test cricket. It is nice to see that it is a recognition that it is a hard format. Nice that the BCCI is recognising that. It is a reward not an incentive,” added Dravid. — Deepankar Sharda

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Since the first Test match of the series, we’re man enough and we’re big enough to say that we’ve been outplayed by the better team in the series. I’m full of admiration for India and the beast they are in their home conditions. — Ben Stokes, England Skipper

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1 Shoaib Bashir is the first England Bowler to claim multiple five-wicket hauls in Test cricket before the age of 21. Rehan Ahmed, James Anderson and Bill Voce had registered 1 fifer each before turning 21

That England were chaotic in their batting clearly showed as he took out openers Ben Duckett (2) and Zak Crawley (0). Duckett, who had struggled to defend against Ashwin in the previous games, charged down the wicket for a hit but was nowhere near the ball. Crawley, who had already played 16 balls, was expected to hold his position and give stability to the side, but an inside edge flew into the safe hands of Sarfaraz Khan at leg-slip.

Before the tea break, Ollie Pope (19) surrendered meekly, erring in his judgment to sweep only to misjudge the ball. Playing his 100th Test, Jonny Bairstow (39) joined Root and instead of playing calmly, went for two sixes and back-to-back fours. He hammered three thundering sixes off Ashwin on the on-side before his aggression was doused by Kuldeep, who trapped him leg before.

Ashwin then returned before the lunch to twist the knife further when skipper Ben Stokes (2), seemingly out of desperation, flung his bat for another cheap dismissal. At 103/5, a crushing innings defeat was writ large by the afternoon.

And so it began to play out with Ben Foakes lured into a wild slog-sweep as the ball crashed into the stumps, giving Aswhin 36th five-wicket haul in Tests.

Later, Jasprit Bumrah joined the party, his (2/38) fiery spell getting him wickets of Tom Hartley and Mark Wood. 

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