Loose England toss it away

Subhash Rajta

Tribune News Service

Mohali, November 26

The joy on the Indian faces quickly gave way to anxiousness. Several pairs of eyes turned simultaneously towards a specific spot on the wicket. The previous ball, the last of the 10th over, bowled by Umesh Yadav, had jagged up from that spot, struck England opener Haseeb Hameed on his gloves and flew straight into the safe hands of Ajinkya Rahane.

The unexpected bounce, which caught the compact-looking England opener unawares, cut short the celebrations in the Indian camp. Perhaps they feared the bounce would get more uneven as the game progressed and, having lost the toss and batting second, they would suffer more than England on account of it.

Following the first dismissal, seven more England batsmen fell during the course of the day, at the end of which the visitors were 268/8. However, except for the dismissal of Hameed, no dismissal could be blamed on uneven bounce or unexpected turn. After Hameed, the next five batsmen fell playing loose strokes, and the last two wickets tumbled because of some fine bowling by Jayant Yadav and Umesh Yadav.

Advantage lost 

Having won the toss, which has become so crucial on Indian pitches, England appeared a little too eager to press home the advantage, and ended up almost throwing it away with some poor strokes. Skipper Alastair Cook, who was dropped twice in his 27-run knock, was the first to throw away his wicket. Trying to cut a short and wide delivery from Ravichandran Ashwin, he edged it into Parthiv Patel’s gloves. Joe Root was guilty of playing the worst shot of the day — he attempted a pull off Jayant Yadav, played over it and was caught plumb in front of the wicket. Moeen Ali, who looked quite comfortable against spin, hooked a Mohammed Shami bouncer straight to the man stationed at fine-leg just for that shot. And then Stokes jumped out of his crease, aiming for a big cover drive, missed the ball completely, and Patel whipped off the bails in a flash. Jos Buttler, who looked pretty solid during his 43-run knock, was also guilty of throwing away his wicket — he played an uppish drive straight to Virat Kohli at mid-off when he was required to cut out all the risks. An exasperated England fan in the stands summed up the collapse quite colourfully. “It seems they were up until late last night having drinks. They look so disoriented,” he said.

Solid Bairstow

Thankfully, England had at least one ‘sober’ batsman in Jonny Bairstow. The wicketkeeper batsman, who was promoted to No. 5 and, according to skipper Cook, had a glint in his eyes when he was told about it, knuckled down and produced a fighting 89-run knock to spare England the blushes. With good support from Stokes and Buttler, he helped England recover from 92/4 at lunch to 268/8 at the close of play.

Notwithstanding his belligerent knock, England still seem to have frittered away the advantage of winning the toss on a wicket that didn’t do anything drastic on Day 1. “The ball hasn’t started turning yet, so the score could have been better,” opined Umesh Yadav at the end of the day’s play.  Bairstow sounded almost in agreement with this analysis. “After winning the toss, it was disappointing to lose wickets. But it could have been a disastrous day had we not knuckled down after the first session,” he said.

The hosts must be happy over how the day panned out for them after having lost the toss. Yet, they must be feeling a little peeved at allowing England reach even this far, especially after having them on the mat at 92/4 in the first session.

Scoreboard

England 1st innings

A Cook c Patel b Ashwin 27

H Hameed c Rahane b U Yadav 9

J Root lbw b J Yadav 5

M Ali c Vijay b Shami 16

J Bairstow lbw b J Yadav 89

B Stokes st Patel b Jadeja 29

J Buttler c Kohli b Jadeja 43

C Woakes b U Yadav 25

A Rashid not out 4

G Batty not out 0

Extras (b 8, lb 2, nb 1) 11

Total (8 wickets, 90 overs) 268

Fall of wickets:  1-32 , 2-51, 3-51, 4-87, 5-144, 6-213, 7-258, 8-266

Bowling 

M Shami 20-5-52-1

U Yadav 16-4-58-2

J Yadav 15-5-49-2

R Ashwin 18-1-43-1

R Jadeja 21-3-56-2

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89 Jonny Bairstow registered his highest score vs India in Tests, surpassing the 53 at Visakhapatnam in the second Test of the present series.

1340 Bairstow’s tally (average 67.00) in 15 Tests is the highest by any batsman this year in Tests apart from being the highest-ever by a wicketkeeper in a calendar year in Tests.

2575 Alastair Cook’s runs (average 55.97) in 26 Tests is the highest by an overseas batsman in the Subcontinent. He became the first visiting batsman to appear in 50 innings in Tests in Asia.