Finance
At the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, debutant left-arm spinner Tom Hartley overcame a subpar first innings performance to record a remarkable 7-62 as England won the maiden Test series against India by an unlikely and historic 28 runs on Sunday.
England, having behind by 190 runs, made 420 in their second innings thanks to a brilliant 196 from Ollie Pope, setting a target of 231 for India. But Hartley had other ideas. A few hours after West Indies pacer Shamar Joseph grabbed a seven-fer to prevent Australia from winning in Brisbane, Hartley went through the Indian batting order to take his first-ever seven-wicket haul in Test cricket and bowl out the hosts for 202.
With this victory, England now leads the five-game series 1-0. This victory also demonstrates how well the visitors’ Bazball strategy worked in Indian conditions. Unquestionably, it is one of England’s best Test victories away from home.
India dominated for most of the game before England’s bowling and batting attacks destroyed them, resulting in just their fourth Test loss at home since 2013. Additionally, they have never lost a Test match at home after leading by more than 100 runs at the conclusion of the first innings.
With England struggling at 163/5, vice captain Pope came in and produced one of the best innings of any batsman in Test match in India. He used the sweep to a very good effect, dismantling the Indian spinners in an attacking fashion to his 21 boundaries in his 278-ball vigil at the crease.
Additionally, he made three important partnerships with Ben Foakes, Rehan Ahmed, and Tom Hartley, scoring 112, 64, and 80 runs, respectively. Pope and Rehan Ahmed were extending the lead in the first session’s second over, with Pope taking a single past point off Jasprit Bumrah to reach his 150.
India stuck with the old ball even though the fresh ball was made accessible, and it paid off when Bumrah utilized a reverse swing to take Rehan’s outside edge behind K.S. Bharat.
As India struggled to muster any momentum, Pope and Tom Hartley kept taking boundaries and singles off the spinners. As Hartley lofted off Ashwin in the 89th over, boundaries continued to pour even after taking the new ball.
India’s bowlers didn’t look threatening and were unable to stop the run-flow, as well as give easy singles as the Pope-Hartley stand raised their fifty. Pope was given a reprieve at 186 when KL Rahul dropped his catch at slip off Mohammed Siraj, with Hartley continuing to find boundaries.
The partnership was brought to a halt by Ashwin, who castled Hartley with the one which stayed low. Jadeja came back to have the inside edge of Mark Wood caught behind by Bharat and in the next over, Pope shaped for a reverse scoop, but he missed a slower ball from Jasprit Bumrah to hit the top of off-stump.
India’s chase began sedately before Rohit smashed two boundaries off Mark Wood – with the second one coming after it dropped short of Zak Crawley at second slip. While Rohit put away full tosses from Joe Root to the boundary ropes, Yashasvi Jaiswal got going with boundaries off sweep and cut shots.
England set attacking in-out fields to keep the openers in check but burnt a review in the sixth over. Hartley shortened his length on Jaiswal charging down the pitch and Jaiswal flicked straight into the hands of Pope at short leg.
One brought two as a tentative Shubman Gill pushed at a Hartley delivery and Pope at silly mid-off took a sharp catch to dismiss the batter for a two-ball duck. Hartley and Jack Leach, bowling with an injured knee, found sharp turn and beat the outer edges of the bats. Rohit tried to unsettle them with a flurry of boundaries coming via sweep and reverse-sweeps.
But Hartley got one to beat Rohit on the inside edge and trapped him plumb lbw, as India lost their captain and a review. From there on, Rahul and Axar joined forces to stabilise the Indian chase.
Rahul kept his distance from Hartley and swept the ball nicely. However, Axar took advantage of Rehan Ahmed’s longer deliveries to score two fours before hitting the short ball to give the leg-spinner three boundaries.
Following tea, Hartley ended a 32-run stand with a quick strike when he collected a low return catch on Axar Patel’s hesitant drive. After three overs, Rahul, trying to defend off the back foot, was caught leg before wicket by an off-break delivery from Joe Root, and India lost their second review.
Stokes produced a moment of brilliance when he fired in a throw after diving in from mid-on. His under-arm throw hit the stumps at the non-striker’s end and caught Ravindra Jadeja short of his crease. Two overs later, Shreyas Iyer tried to push hard against a Jack Leach delivery flighted outside off-stump and gave a simple catch to slip.
Ashwin hit a much-needed boundary for India by cutting past point off Leach, as runs required for India went down to 100 runs. Ashwin and KS Bharat were resolute in rebuilding the chase for India and were helped by the ball going soft and the slowness of the pitch kicking in.
When Bharat hit two fours off Rehan, one soaring off the toe-end of the bat over slip and the other cut beyond point, India passed 150. After that, he slog-swept the leg-spinner over mid-on for four more, and Ashwin followed suit to bring the partnership to fifty by slicing Leach through deep backward point for four more runs.
When Hartley got the ball to roll past Bharat’s outside edge on forward defence and hit the top of the off-stump to clinch his maiden five-wicket haul in Test cricket, he broke the 57-run eighth-wicket stand. Hartley had Ashwin stumped by a mile on his subsequent over. Before Bumrah and Siraj put on 25 runs for the final wicket at the stroke of stumping, Hartley stumped the latter at the stroke of stumps to earn an extraordinary win for England.
Brief scores:
England 246 and 420 in 102.1 overs (Ollie Pope 196; Ben Duckett 47; Jasprit Bumrah 4-41, Ravichandran Ashwin 3-126) beat India 436 and 202 in 69.2 overs (Rohit Sharma 39, K.S Bharat 28; Tom Hartley 7-62) by 28 runs
Source:IANS
