England thoroughly deserved to win the cricket
Test Series in India against
India, and they won today
forcing a draw in the fourth and last Test in Nagpur. Thus they have won a Test Series in India in 28 years—the last Series victory was in 1984-85 and the margin was also
2-1. The Series victory came despite losing the first Test, despite the rabid ‘Revenge
Series’ slogan, despite the Indian pitches and threesome foursome Indian
spinners, despite the ‘home’ conditions and crowds, despite poor umpiring
decisions that mostly affected England till the fourth day of the fourth Test
in Nagpur and despite Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
England deserved
to win because of their determined diehard professional approach, all-round
performances in all disciplines of the game, a memorably prolific captain Cook
leading from the front and the team playing as a cohesive unit. They won the
Mumbai and Kolkata Tests convincingly thrashing a lackluster Team India as Cook
went on creating history. In Nagpur, the slow
and low pitch made England
crawl from day one and their solid defensive tactics did in fact help them
preserving their 2-1 lead. Captain Cook made another kind of history here by
scoring a match total of 14 runs in 121 balls (first innings 1 in 28 and second
innings 13 in 93) and falling to umpiring blunders on each occasion.
England had a
nervous time on the fourth day yesterday as India, inexplicably slow in scoring
runs despite having just two wickets in hand, finally made 326 for 9 declared conceding
only a 4-run lead. It was delicate situation because an English collapse could
give the match to India,
and importantly give away a historic series win. Therefore, proceedings were
extremely slow and when England
lost two quick wickets at 94 for 3 the lead was not enough for thoughts about
safety. But Trott (66 not out) took full control then and with solid company of
Bell (24 not
out) steered the team total to 161 for 3 at stumps. England reached safety for a Series
win on the last day today. They only needed to play out the first session, and
they exactly did that and even more building a mammoth partnership of 208 runs. Trott (143) notched his eighth hundred and his first since March, 2012. Ensuring a Series victory England went to almost ridiculous extent batting beyond the Tea break maybe allowing Bell (116 not out) to have his hundred too. Finally England reached 354 for 4 when a draw was agreed upon making way for a historic Series victory. Indian spinner foursome was a complete disappointment and to Dhoni's prolonged agony his pitch just refused to break up.
For India, apart
from the first Test that they won banking mainly on Cheteshwar Pujara, nothing
significant happened in the entire Series except for the near double hundred
partnership between Virat Kohli and skipper Dhoni on the third day that
generated some hope of a result in India’s favor. Kohli finally came back to
form and notched up his third century, but Dhoni 'Negative' did not still deserve
one, and as if by divine design he fell to an immensely avoidable run-out for 99—an occurrence that
hardly raised any eyebrows anywhere in his country. As the state of things with
Team India
are at the moment, even that huge partnership came to nought with another Indian mini
collapse making the total reel at 297 for 8 at end of play on the third day,
still trailing by 33 runs. The Scorecard:
India on this collective Test failure have
nothing but to learn a few precious English lessons now: be patient, determined and
defensive when required if you think you are playing Test matches; never bother
too much about pitch conditions or alien conditions; allow the team play united
and with mutual trust; never use your clout to the detriment of your team or nation
howsoever big you are; do not ever fall prey to favoritism or nepotism and
behave well on field always even if you are playing before your home crowds
whose support you take for granted.
Now, all eyes
are glued to what is not going to happen to Indian Cricket! Or happen?
