India out-skilled, out-thought & out-witted England in their final assault to be at the WTC Final !

by Abhishek Chakraborty

India have sealed their much awaited spot in the inaugural WTC Final! India clinched the Test series with a 3-1 score line eventually, having made a stellar comeback after conceding the 1st Test to an upbeat English side at Chennai.

Here, at the world’s largest cricket stadium, India had to salvage at least a draw in order to find themselves at the summit clash versus the Kiwis in England, later this year but they did better in a span of 3 days and won the tussle by an innings and 25 runs.

Here’s how it all transpired –

England went into a spot of bother early into the 1st innings courtesy impressive opening spells from Axar and Siraj

Sibley and Crawley departed very soon to Axar’s brilliance early into the test match as England opted to bat on a good wicket having won the coin flip for yet another time in the series. Siraj replaced Bumrah in the playing XI as the latter opted out of the last game owing to personal reasons. Siraj was brought into the attack from the other end while Axar had a stronghold on the English batting stint.

And boy did he deliver one heck of a searing spell to the likes of Root and Bairstow who struggled to get behind the ball, missing edges both on the inside and the outside. Siraj with his tail up, wrapped Joe Root plumb in front as the ball skidded off a length from his sharp indeeper. England were reeling at 30/3 before Ben Stokes came to England’s rescue of some sort. Bairstow hung around for a while with his 28-run knock off 67 deliveries before eventually falling to a jaffa from Siraj.

India were all over England as the visitors looked for a much needed escape route to a good 1st innings total.

Ben Stokes, the batsman finally came to the party once again to stabilize England’s 1st innings

The English middle order had a heavy task in hand after the dismal show from the top order. Stokes, Pope & Lawrence did a pretty good job in getting England to a relatively good eventual total of 205 from 78/4. Two back to back partnerships of 43 and 45 runs between Stokes-Pope and Pope-Lawrence respectively saw England steading the ship before eventually giving in to the spin trio of Axar-Ashwin-Sundar who shared 8 wickets amongst themselves.

Ben Stokes’ innings was noteworthy as he spent a lot of time in the middle and looked set for a long haul. He looked determined more than ever to have his say in the middle and saw off good spells from Siraj, Axar & Ashwin to lunge onto Sundar but that was not to be. Sundar was skilled enough to replicate an Ashwin to Stokes as he set him up nicely with the away going conventional off spinning deliveries and then did him with a straighter one coming on with the arm as Stokes remained stuck on the crease in the backfoot. His vigil ended at 55 runs off 121 deliveries.

Dan Lawrence came in with an aggressive approach and that paid off nicely. He batted with Ollie Pope and later with the tail enders to register 46 runs before getting outdone by Axar. England managed to hit the 200-run mark, their second highest total in this series after the 578, they registered in the 1st innings of the 1st test at Chennai.

Ben Stokes brought out his all round cricketing self to the fore to put up a spirited English fightback

The ever promising Shubman Gill didn’t have a good England series following up a quality Australian series down under. Jimmy Anderson yet again got the better of him before he could settle into the innings. Surprisingly India’s approach seemed to be ultra defensive facing the likes of Anderson & Leach upfront. Rohit and Pujara managed to bide away their own sweet time on the square but without putting enough runs on the board which added to the prolonging pressure.

Pujara yet again fell prey to his nemesis, Jack Leach in this series. While one hoped for a captain’s knock from Kohli this time around, Ben Stokes who was brought into the attack, bend his back to catch Kohli by surprise and he edged it to Foakes to depart for a golden duck ! India were soon put into all sorts of trouble while Stokes and Anderson looked the part on that aiding pitch. Rahane injected the much needed momentum coming in at 40/3 and made a quickfire 27 before edging it to the slip fielder, Stokes off Anderson. India had to get to England’s 1st innings total which looked far off then even with Rohit in the crease.

Jimmy Anderson and Ben Stokes gave their all, they had the strangle-hold on India and seemed to be bossing the game. At 38 degrees temperature, the efforts from the duo were for all to see and applaud. England were back in it and India were much on the backfoot as a drawn result was not on the cards and the likelihood of a bad one hour further could cost them the WTC final, was looming over.

Rishabh Pant backed the Gabba with another Motera courtesy an exhilarating ton

With India reeling at 80/4, Rishabh Pant came into the crease with a potential of turning the match on its head. But to think that for a common cricket fan is outrageous when you had a Stokes and Anderson in their full mojo hitting the right areas extracting enough out the track to trouble even a set Rohit Sharma every now and then. Therefore Rishabh Pant played a second fiddle to Rohit as the senior statesman suggested him to hang around for a little while to assess the conditions and later resort to his natural attacking self when he feels in, on that strip.

Rohit soon fell at 49 to a Stokes vicious in-swinger as Ashwin took to the crease. Pant played the odd stroke to the boundary but his mature self every now and then left the good balls outside the off stump. Ashwin too succumbed into a soft dismissal to Jack Leach and at 153/6 when both sides headed for Tea on Day 2, it looked England could well go on to secure a lead of 20 runs if they carried on, in this manner.

Soon after Tea, Pant took to his aggressive self and got to his half-century immediately. As the deficit grew smaller, Pant’s blistering bashing grew bigger. He smacked the remaining English bowlers to all nook and corners of the stadium as Anderson and Stokes were given a much needed rest. Dom Bess’ lack of consistency didn’t help England’s cause as Jack Leach had no support from the other end. Root tried his hand but with no rewards and Pant could sense the opportunity in a tired England fielding side. And in no time, Pant was nearing his 3rd Test ton. Sundar played a perfect foil to Pant as he nudged the balls into the gaps for easy singles and rotated the strike over keeping it ticking for India.

As England took the much needed new ball, Anderson and Stokes were brought back but Rishabh had other ideas, he didn’t allow them to settle. Pant’s wild exuberance made him attempt an inexplicable reverse sweep to Jimmy Anderson’s out-swinger that came off and became a part of the highlight’s package for the rest of the Test. Pant got to his ton with a humungous six and that was it, he had shown by then how impactful he has been, in these last few months for this Indian side in this format. He managed to score 101 off 118 deliveries with 13 fours and 2 sixes before falling to Anderson off a rather ordinary delivery, but the damage had already been done by then. Rishabh Pant became only the second wicket keeper batsman after Adam Gilchrist to register a ton each in England, Australia and India.

India had batted England out of the advantage with a 141 run post-Tea session and were leading by 89 runs with Washington Sundar and Axar Patel at the crease heading onto the next day.

Washington Sundar carried forward the advantage well into the next day as India secured a substantial lead ahead of England’s 2nd innings

With an 89 run lead heading into the 3rd day morning session, India looked comfortably placed to add another 50 odd runs to the total. Sundar looked well set for his 1st Test ton as Axar Patel hung around for long, in a well strung 106-run partnership before he got ran out at 43 while trying to get Sundar on strike. Sundar got stranded at the non-striker’s end at 96* as Ishant and Siraj got out in quick succession in the following over of Ben Stokes. He registered his highest Test score but must have been in serious pain having fallen agonizingly short of a much deserving Test hundred.

India managed a solid lead of 160 runs and one felt that the match could well be over by the end of the day unless England pushed themselves yet again to put up a one last fight.

India’s spin twins ruffled up England’s batting once again to seal the deal securing yet another home series win

Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin were on the money right from the get go. English batsmen found no respite as they struggled their way along countering the duo’s impeccable wizardry. They had surrendered to top quality spin. Indian spinners were ahead against their English counterparts in skillsets by leaps and bounds. Axar managed to get his fourth 5-fer while Ashwin registered his thirtieth 5-wicket haul as each went onto to bag 27 and 32 wickets respectively in the series.

England captain, Joe Root managed to get a score of 30 while Dan Lawrence got to his 50 before before handing India a top-notch series victory that also secured India’s 5th consecutive Test mace under skipper Virat Kohli. From 0-1 down to 3-1 series score line, India had it done the hard way into the World Test Championship final as they eventually upset England and Australia in the process for a berth in the finals versus New Zealand later this year.

Rishabh Pant grabbed the man of the match for his stellar knock of 101 while Ravi Ashwin grabbed yet another man of the series at home soil for his 32 wickets and 189 runs with a crucial 106-run knock on a Chennai rank turner in the second test.

India will head into the WTC final eyeing a sweet revenge of the CWC’19 semifinal upset in the hands of the Kiwis back in England. This clash would be no less than a World Cup final as being chanted by most of the Indian test players, hence it augers to be seriously exciting and we simply cannot wait for the summit clash !