Yash-Raz magic at Rajkot — Decimation of the English Pride
Is the Bazball staring at the end of the road? Or is there stuff left in it?
First things first — it has been 3 months since what unfolded at the NM Stadium in Ahmedabad on that fateless day. India was shown their place by the Aussies in the WC Final.
It takes so much time and composure to get back to the sport that you like. This time around, there is a reason to follow the sport — which we very much love.
Day 1 — I woke up groggy and opened my phone, the score read 40 odd for 3 — instead of Jaiswal hitting it all around the park as he did in the first test against Hartley — I saw Jadeja and Hitman playing defensively. Not taking any chances whatsoever. There were times when against Wood it was tough to hold ground — he was being used by Ben Stokes in short spells. I was only wishing for lunch to arrive as soon as possible.
Rohit batted beautifully in the second session and played the situations. Put away what was to be put away. Went after Wood only to mistime it to short midwicket in the post-tea session shortly after his century.
No matter how many times Rohit gets out miscuing his pull off a short ball, you have to give it to him that he has been consistent over the years and across geographies. Although the shot is always dangerous, he still wants to hit it over the infield thus making bowlers second guess whether they can shower him with a barrage of short ones at the ribs like Wood has been doing to other Indian batters during the series.
Then came the guy who we were all waiting for, Sarfa(Raz) Khan — stocky 26 years old on debut. He had his nerves for the first couple of deliveries — a pacer was bowling and I was afraid that Wood would take him. He ducked a few, he missed sweeping one or two but he survived Wood. The ball by now was over 60–65 overs old — there was a hint of reverse here and there.
Then came on the spinners — and boy oh boy, did he not whack them all over the park! In his first few boundaries, he cut one between point and backward point, whacked one off Hartley over his head towards the straight boundary, pulled one in the deep midwicket area bending his knees, played one fine towards the fine leg boundary — the best thing about his stroke play was clear intent and knowing what he was doing. He was hitting them all clean and confident — no two ways about it.
Ben Stokes should be and has been given due credit for his good captaincy and immaculate fielding placement in the series but I guess he missed a trick or two when Sarfaraz came into bat.
Firstly, a little research about Sarfaraz would have helped Stokes that he is someone adept at playing with soft hands and is comparatively short. Stokes could have continued with a couple of more overs at his ribs and placed more fielders close on the leg side. If I was Stokes I would have taken a cue from Ashwin’s playbook for Smith. So anything hitting gloves or getting slightly up would have created an opportunity and thus would have forced Sarfaraz not free his hands.
Secondly, bowling in the rough created no chances for the spinners — apart from the one which fell into no mans’ land. Why wait for the new ball then? Why not bowl your pacers after 2–3 overs each of the spinners? Why let Sarfaraz settle into a rhythm when he was not comfortable against the pace to start with?
Although England didn’t take the new ball as Sarfaraz was run-out but that clearly was a lack of judgment by Stokes.
It was a short innings of 60-odd deliveries which was ended by a brilliant throw at the non-striker’s end — in pursuit of a quick non-existent single on Ravindra Jadeja’s call at 99.
Sarfaraz did what any non-striker debutant would have done. Nonetheless, it was a selfish and reckless call from Jadeja — he did apologise later on on Social Media. India ended the day at 315 — had Sarfaraz played for 40–45 mins more till the stumps, he would have been closer to a well-deserved debut century and India at 360-odd.
Day 2: The centurion from Day 1, Ravi Jadeja could not add much to his last night’s total and departed early. Dhruv Jurel (another debutant) added valuable 80-odd runs with R Ashwin — playing every delivery on its merit. I was missing Sarfaraz — who could have made the English attack look ordinary on the second morning. Jurel on his debut looked confident and we got a small trailer of what he can do (batting-wise) for us as the second keeper in the squad. Another thing I have observed over the years in the English approach is over-attacking tailenders and the last recognized batting pair. With Jadeja out at 331–7, India ended close to 450 as a result of that. Please respect Ashwin the batter in India and make him work for his runs.
After the Indian innings folded for 400-odd — English Openers came blazing guns. The way Ben Duckett swept and reverse swept — anything and everything that was pitched up, was brilliant for an Englishman. English at stumps were well poised to equal the Indian first innings’ total. They had scored at 6 an over — pitch flat or not, but that was the last bit of Bazball which we were to see in the Test.
Day 3: The morning started rather gingerly. It was all going good for England — until Joe Root — their best batsman in the last 13–14 years, attempted to reverse lap/ramp a full delivery on the 4th stumps, over the third man boundary — only to end up in the safe hands of Jaiswal at second slip. It was one of the brain fade moments — if you consider the situation of the game, where English were cruising at 230/2 — with the deficit of over 200 runs.
Post Root, there was not much the English batters could do, they had given an opening to Bumrah and co. India were a bowler short as Ashwin had to fly to Chennai because of a family emergency.
Shortly, Kuldeep trapped Bairstow leg before on the off-stump. The slump had begun.
Md. Siraj came in and bowled quick — yorked the hell out of Rehan Ahmed and Jamie Anderson. Ben Stokes showed some resistance batting with the tail and English ended their 1st innings at 319 — with a deficit of around 125 runs.
India came on to bat during the second session with shoulders up and with the motive to decimate the English under the heaps of runs. I wonder if Jaisman was told by Dravid and co. to see off the new ball. And he did see off the new ball. Was scoring at 20 for the first 50 deliveries and once Rohit was gone, he switched gears, it was something like a switch going on and suddenly the monk turned into a monster — hitting everything in his arc. And boy does the bony lad have an arc! Hits clean and hits them all away, commits to shots. Even when it is playing a ramp shot off Anderson and ending up on the back — playing a delivery which was wide on off stump and ramped it so well that it is a couple of bounces and four on the fine leg fence. He kept toying with the spinners even when they varied with the line.
Day 4: The highlight of Jaiswal’s double century was taking Anderson for a hattrick of sixes. Anderson missed his length on one and Jaiswal lapped it over the square leg boundary for a six, the next delivery was a good length outside off — Jaiswal danced down the track and deposited over the extra cover boundary, and the third six was the most eye-pleasing — Anderson tried to bowl a classical pacer length on the 5th stump — Jaiswal played it on the back foot and sent the ball sailing over the bowlers head for a six hitting the sightscreen.
The crowd sweetheart Sarfaraz was not much behind when it came to making the lead a big one. Stokes had set a defensive field, with three boundary riders on the leg side — and thus asking the spinners to bowl into the rough and take it away from the right-hander. Sarfaraz waited for his turn after having read the length/variations especially on Rehan’s bowling — and took his chances bisecting the area between the long on and deep midwicket and then depositing some over the on side boundary for a convincing six.
Now Rajkot is a proper Test size ground with 80–85m boundaries on either sides — so these sixes would have gone 20–30 rows back had the game been played in Chinnaswamy. Most shots played by Sarfaraz were properly committed shots of a confident player with heaps of runs under their belt.
Seeing Jaiswal and Sarfaraz on song didn’t make me feel as if I was watching newcomers — they have shown the maturity of players having played 30 test matches at least.
Another highlight of Sarfaraz was soft wristy hands in manufacturing the singles on the on side — after having hit a boundary, I often found him rotating the strike with ease and not allowing the bowler to try something new or different.
England Batting: India had declared with over 55–60 minutes left in the afternoon session. And that would amount to around 12–15 overs, depending on who bowls. Bumrah came charging in asking questions that he had asked in the last two Tests. I wonder what was going into the minds of Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett whenever they had a glance at the screen looking at the target. And it was that which caused the first hiccup when the first innings centurion was run out. It was a brilliant piece of glovework by Dhruv Jurel who came charging in 15–20 yards when he saw Ben Duckett leaving his crease and the ball going into the direction of Md Siraj(one of the weak links) as far as hitting the stumps on a throw is concerned. Jurel timed his run brilliantly wherein receiving the throw from Siraj and breaking the stumps.
Zak Crawley was trapped lbw by Bumrah with an incoming delivery coming in. A tad bit down the leg but the ultraedge showed the ball clipping the leg stump and the umpire’s call prevailed.
In the final session, it was Jadeja who was the main tormentor. Three middle-order batters were trapped lbw trying to play the SWEEP. The rest of the batters didn’t trouble the scorer much. At 9 down, Mark Wood did give us some entertainment by whacking Ravi Jadeja for a few sixes and fours — throwing the proverbial kitchen sink at everything. Jadeja had the last laugh when Wood holed out at the mid-off. And as fate would have it, it was Mark Wood c.Jaiswal b.Jadeja.
A perfect tribute to the architects of the India’s win.
Special mention of Joe Root since he has never had a dearth of runs in subcontinent conditions. There was a stark difference between the way Duckett played the sweeps and reverse sweeps and the way Root threw his wicket in both innings.
First inning Duckett swept with clarity and after he had a decent read of the pitch with a comparatively harder ball and was sure of the bounce of the ball every time. Root on the other hand never felt at ease in reading the ball and played a half-hearted ramp to a ball that did not have enough bounce to clear the slip. Similarly in the second inning, Joe Root completely missed the pitch of the ball and was trapped in front, ending his 40-odd ball misery at the crease.
With the series poised at 2–1, the next two test matches are going to be crucial and exciting. I won’t write England off just yet but at the same time, there is a larger picture to be analyzed.
The Bazball is being tested in the toughest away fortress for any White Boy team. Let’s wait and watch how it unfolds at Ranchi later this week. It is going to be a lot of soul searching for Stokes and co. Will they keep playing the firebrand style of cricket or will they resort to how the English teams of the past have negotiated Indian conditions.
Stay tuned for coverage and analysis on the next test.