Spin It to Win It!

In these Covid crisis times, any Test cricket with spectators is worth celebrating, and if there is some genuine excitement to be had, so much the better. After three games in India, we’ve run the whole gamut from England’s run glut to a superb home side response then a crazy two-day-one-nighter. We’ve experienced everything bar a tie or a five-day washout. Who, apart from any Ahmedabad ticketholders for days three to five, could ask for more? 

The Root and Anderson show in Chennai three weeks ago seemed to herald a new era of England dominance on Asian soil. Serve up a turning pitch? No problem: Joe Root is one of the best players of spin in the world, Sibley (and the absent Crawley) are learning and the rest can just get out of trouble by hitting Ashwin et al out of the ground. In any case, we’ve Leach, Bess and Moeen Ali so World Test Championship final, here we come! 

Then came the Chennai replay, and such ECB optimism took a mighty blow. Ollie Stone didn’t disgrace himself with the ball and Moeen can always look back on the dismissal which not even run-less Virat Kohli could accept as reality. But that’s as good as it got. Rohit Sharma plundered 161 then England’s batsmen couldn’t cope with debutant Axar Patel and the wily Ravichandran Ashwin who rubbed it in further by contributing a second-innings ton of his own. The winning margin of 317 runs told the story but the 1-1 scoreline set up an intriguing day-night encounter in the spanking new stadium of Ahmedabad. 

As things turned out, it very nearly was just that: a single day-nighter. Apart from Ishant Sharma celebrating his 100^th Test with Sibley’s scoreless wicket and a solitary Archer effort, the Third Test was all about spin. Whilst England looked vulnerable picking only Jack Leach as a specialist, it was the part-time off-breaks of Joe Root which sparked a glimmer of hope on the second morning, taking 5-8, but the partnership of Ashwin and Patel was merciless. If they didn’t turn the ball off an edge they simply bowled it straight onto the pads. Batting looked impossible but of course much of the damage had been done in the mind. 

The whole match was wrapped up in a mere 140 overs, barely lasting into the sixth session. Incredibly this was the quickest Test victory by any side since 1935 and England’s first two-day defeat for well over a century. Of course this will probably go down as an extraordinary one-off and the final fixture will provide a more even contest between bat and ball. However, India must be buzzing. Ashwin has reached the 400-wicket mark in near-record time and Patel will make opponents pay extra attention to his fingers and flight in the future. Also England cannot now win the series, but there remains some pride to fight for.

Team of the Week: Big Hitters and Bouncers

Daryl Mitchell is having a great season to match that of his county, Worcestershire. This week he carried his bat for 167 in the defeat of Gloucestershire, his fifth century of the Championship summer, and struck a brisk 36 against Derbyshir ein the Twenty20. Dwayne Smith didn't hang around, either, in thumping 110 not out for Barbados against St Lucia in the CPL. He also recorded a duck but I'll politely forget that ever happened....

My number three did nothing spectacular but credit to Jonathan Trott for reaching three figures for the first time since his traumatic withdrawal from the Ashes tour and early season relapse. His successor in the England middle-order Gary Ballance also weighed in with 110 in the otherwise embarrassing loss at Lord's to India. He enters my team of the week thanks to his graft which put most team-mates to shame.

There were lots of rapid 80s and 90s in the Caribbean and the final Blast group fixtures. Ramdin, Samuels, Hastings, Westley, Whiteley and Finch peppered boundaries but they were totally outdone by Luke Wright. With Sussex facing a target of 220+ by table-toppers Essex, the ex-England T20 all-rounder refused to give in and went onto smash 12 fours and 11 sixes in an unbeaten 153. It was not only the fourth highest T20 score ever but it won the match - even if Sussex failed to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Darren Stevens is no stranger to my team of the week, and in he comes again. A 38-ball 67 for Kent in the Blast victory over Sussex and nine wickets in the surprising Championship win over Surrey made him one of the top all-rounders. John Simpson rarely makes the headlines in his own county let alone the cricketing world. However the Middlesex wicketkeeper top-scored in each Championship innings, aggregating 171 runs in a losing cause against Yorkshire's very useful attack.

Dale Steyn looked back to his best for South Africa against Sri Lanka last week, with match figures of 9-99, while that man Bhuvneshwar Kumar again frustrated England with both bat and ball. His seam and swing netted 6-82 in the first innings, giving Anderson, Plunkett and Broad a lesson in how to bowl in helpful seam conditions. Kumar notched another half-century, too. In the second innings it was Ishant Sharma who proved to be the star performer. His 7-74 wasn't statistically as impressive as Ryan Sidebottom's 7-74 for Yorkshire but in the context of Test cricket, it was superb.

Finally I've gone for another quick, Stuart Meaker. He had a great start for Surrey this Spring before injury and competition for places kept him out of the team. This week he was back with a vengeance, claiming eleven wickets against Essex in the Championship and 4-30 in the T20 win over Middlesex. Sunil Narine and James Tredwell came close (the latter playing for both Kent and Sussex!) but no spinner this week.

Sharma the charmer cooks the hookers

There was a time back in the '80s and '90s when England's opposition always seemed to raise their game at Lord's and come away with victory, even if they got hammered elsewhere. India did it in 1986 when a combination of Dilip Venhsarkar's unbeaten century, Kapil Dev and a mean spin spell from Maninder Singh secured a five-wicket win.

However, until this week's encounter, the home team had turned things around and contrived to lose only once in sixteen attempts, since the heady days of McGrath, Lee and Warne. Is it the pitch, England getting better or a greater familiarity with HQ making it less of an event? I don't know, but after all the criticism of the Trent Bridge groundsmen preparing a five-day batting paradise, the greentop seemed ready-made for Anderson, Broad, Plunkett and Stokes. A shame that quartet didn't fulfil the roles set out for them!

On the first morning, they were pilloried for bowling too short instead of going fuller to invite the edged drive. Four days later, it was short-pitched stuff which won the match - for India. Delicious irony there, I feel. Nevertheless, without Ajinkya Rahane's excellent 103 - ended just as magnificently by Anderson's caught-and-bowled - things may have panned out rather differently. He helped add 150 crucial runs for the last three wickets. On Friday and Saturday, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was supreme, yet Yorkshire duo Ballance and Plunkett somehow earned England a slender first-innings lead.

Three partnerships dominated India's second outing: 78 for the sesond wicket (Murali Vijay and Pujara), 79 for the fifth (Vijay again and Jadeja) and 99 for the eighth (Jadeja and Kumar). The only real triumphs for England came when Plunkett bowled Kohli for a golden duck, but that Jadeja-Kumar effort really kicked Cook and co in the teeth.

The 319-run target would, if successful, have been England's best ever at home. They had four sessions in which to achieve it but, remember, the Lord's pitch was not prepared for a fifth day runfest. This was surely the stage for Alastair Cook to demonstrate why he has been, until recently, one of the world's best Test batsmen. Could he, Ian Bell and Matt Prior, with that wise head on young shoulders, Joe Root, play sensibly and marshal the less experienced players and sneak that much-needed triumph?

Sam Robson fell early but Cook and Ballance seemed to be sticking to the script. Then came the first horror show, as they and Bell were each despatched for just two runs. Root and Moeen Ali proceeded to steady the ship and even contributed a three-figure partnership. Then came arguably Ishant Sharma's greatest spell of his career. In terms of numbers, anyway. That he ended up with a remarkable 7-74 owed more to cretinous playing of bouncers by batsmen who frankly should have known better.

After being softened up by Mitch Johnson last winter, you'd have thought the array of coaches would have ensured England had practised against the short ball in the intervening period. Perhaps they could be forgiven for thinking Shami, Kumar and Sharma offered little danger in that area but this was not the time to put on your Twenty20 brain and swing the bat instead of ducking or swaying away from the ball.

The Jadeja-Anderson 'handbags' sideshow delivered an appropriate denouement as the Indian fielder ran out the England number eleven to wrap up a 95-run win and hammer another nail into the captaincy of Cook. Prior was so shell-shocked by his own performance that he made himself unavailable for the Third Test. A genuine injury or a touch of the Swanns? To their credit, Cook and Peter Moores stood their ground and declared their faith in the squad (Kerrigan apart). The opener has endured poor sequences before and was very nearly dropped for the Ashes series which ultimately made his name. That he is now the skipper makes him a little more secure, and axing him mid-series would surely signal a white flag to MS Dhoni.

I can't imagine Cook's future and the series result resting on Jos Buttler's call-up. He may be an aggressive batsman but then so is Prior. There's no evidence from Lancashire that Buttler's keeping has noticeably improved either. However, the media are playing up his talismanic qualities although if Cook and Bell play it cool and do what they have done so many times before, the turnaround will come. If India go 3-0 up by next month, or two up with one to play, that will probably be the time to sign the death warrant of Cook's leadership, but not before.

Instead of Anderson and Broad it has so far been all about Kumar and Sharma, and Dhoni must be laughing. Something tells me he won't be quite so celebratory by the end of next week.

McCullum's Triple Whammy!

After lauding Brendon McCullum's double-century last week, I have to make him centre stage again as the first New Zealander ever to make 300 in a Test innings. For someone once renowned only for his one-day strokeplay, the NZ skipper's work on his long-form batting skills and decision-making have evidently paid off in spades. His ODI scores have suffered but making 224 and 302 in successive matches against the second-ranked nation is no mean feat. The fact that it came in a second innings gives it an extra special lustre; only Hanif Mohammad 56 years ago has hit a triple second time out.

However, it is his eclipsing of such great Black Cap batsmen such as Stephen Fleming, Glenn Turner and Martin Crowe which brought the Wellington crowd and cricket fans worldwide to life. Crowe has said he got too ahead of himself that day 23 years ago in the same city against Sri Lanka but McCullum just about held it together long enough to play the weary Zaheer Khan to the third man boundary and achieve the milestone. Records will always be broken but Brendon will always be the first Black Cap wearer to notch a triple-hundred.

OK, so he rode his luck at times and was dropped by Kohli when on just nine, but credit to McCullum for knuckling down not just to build an innings but also to save a match that was running away from his side. They were 57-3 and still needing about 200 to avoid defeat and win the two-Test series. India had dismissed the home team for a mere 192 on the first day, with Ishant Sharma claiming a personal best 6-51. Four days later, poor Ishant was looking at possibly his worst figures of 0-164, and his colleagues were struggling having bowled the second highest number of overs by India in any Test.

It could so easily have been the match of Ajinkya Rahane, who compiled his maiden Test century, BJ Watling, for an incredibly patient 124 alongside his captain, or particularly Jimmy Neesham, who marked his debut with an unbeaten 137. Some have even castigated McCullum for not declaring until he reached 300. Huh? At 1-0 up, avoiding defeat had to be his prime objective and with India's reputation for fast-scoring - Dhawan, Kohli, Dhoni et al - allowing Neesham to push the target beyond even Indian aspirations was surely the right decision. And I'm sorry, anyone in the world would not have given up with history beckoning. OK, maybe not Mark Taylor - who famously declared when on 334 so as not to overtake the legendary Bradman - but anyone else!

McCullum apart, New Zealand are definitely looking a stronger Test side these days but India's atrocious away record - fourteen matches without a win - is something they need to overcome if they are once again to be considered candidates for the Mace. They did at least make a contest of the First Test and were in the driving seat for the first three days of this one but they ran into McCullum, Watling and Neesham in the form of their lives. While they have a series in England this summer, New Zealand have no Tests scheduled for a while, and McCullum and co have to forget how to compile a long innings and remember how to slog again in the forthcoming T20 competition. They may even win it... but not by scoring 300, that's for sure.

Forget Ishant, relish the positives!

With Pakistan's victory over South Africa, Bangladesh anticipating a first Test win against New Zealand and India's superb run chase at Jaipur, there are lots of reasons to be cheerful for Asian cricket fans at the moment.

However, Indian fans being Indian fans, you'd be forgiven for thinking that their side had just been mauled by a Mauritius XI rather than a determined Aussie side showing more defiance than they have sometimes done in recent years. True, it has been a high-scoring series so far, the Aussies reaching 300 in each of the three matches. Their stand-in skipper George Bailey has plundered 200 runs already, but Virat Kohli has gone 29 better and, with Rohit Sharma's unbeaten 141 and Shikhar Dhawan's 95 in Jaipur, alongside MS Dhoni's wonderful century yesterday, there's not a lot wrong with the home side's batting line-up.

Indeed, had it not been for James Faulkner's 48th over blitz, India would surely have won the match and we would all have been raving about Dhoni's brutal late-innings hitting, Jadeja's mean bowling and Bhuv Kumar's steady seamers. Nevertheless, Ishant Sharma's failure to restrain Faulkner's do-or-die six-fest ultimately cost his side the match. His skipper's admission that death bowling is a bit of a problem at the moment definitely rings true. With all their one-day and T20 cricket, India can hardly blame lack of experience. Sharma has 68 ODIs under his belt, and Vinay Kumar has 29, and Dhoni has skippered the side in 145 games.

On paper, it was always going to be a series decided by the contest between Indian bowlers and Aussie batsmen rather than the other way around. We already knew about the class of Kohli et al as well as Johnson, McKay and their colleagues. However, after three games, Bailey's consistency and that fierce Faulkner finale have made the difference. It's still only 2-1 and there are four fixtures remaining. It could be a classic confrontation, and all is not lost for the world champs.