As boxing bouts go England did not last the distance as they were laid low on the mat here on a good pitch at Mohali with the heavyweight pugilist that India is knocking them out cold, with a whole gamut of punches.
From the vicious left hook of Jadeja to the hard uppercut of Shami, pounding jabs of Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Kohli, Pujara and Patel, flattened them well before the final round i.e the last day.
It seemed a bantamweight was pitchforked and duelled tamely, in a horrific mismatch with a heavyweight! India did not hold back as it rained punches in a no holds barred fashion as top teams do. England were "sick to the shoes" after this nauseating bout, groggy and leaden-footed.
They squandered a good batting toss with a distinct absence of their "trademark tenacity", with legs of jelly. Fear is never an option to fall back upon in International Sport. It is mastery of fear that translates into courage, which they lacked sorely. They now have a week or so to lick their wounds at Dubai, their temporary getaway. They ought to and must have indulged in a morose bout of collective soul searching with a critical air of a dispassionate examination.
A glaring graffiti is on the wall as a near whitewash looms large at Mumbai, where, ironically, it enjoyed it's finest hours in 2006 and in 2012, on a minefield which backfired on the hosts. Long hauls on hot coals, seem an easier proposition, as fruiting self-immolations have left them disoriented and scalded beyond recognition from the side that fought in Rajkot.
Luck, that intangible and indescribable factor, almost always lends itself to the deserving, particularly in sport, as in life. Players are ingrained at an early age to nourish the belief that harder one works, luckier one gets. No greater evidence of the terse saying could be better illustrated, than in the abject and sordid surrender that catapuled the English into yet another ignominious defeat, where hard work was hardly seen.
Like a festering scab, they rotted because of its stunted batting display, particularly at a time when the track behaved at its best. They wallowed at an incongruous 87 for 4 in the first morning as seasoned pros like Cook, Root and Ali perished to strange and blundering selection of shots, which rendered them like filetted sardines in a can – Suffocated.
India scented blood and grabbed the English jugular with frenzied intent and flattened the pretender to the floor. The ally of a flat pitch on which English players of yore like Boycott, Gooch, and other lesser mortals like Tavare and Tim Robinson would have camped for bed and breakfast, found its current crop quaky feet, as it scrambled a timid display, having frittered the vantages of a toss won.
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Teams batting first that terminate at 286 on a batting beauty can't escape it's repercussions, as India strangled them with hemming Iines and lengths. England owed a late rearguard to a spirited and splendid effort by the phlegmatic yorkshireman, Jonny Bairstow, who at his new role at no.5, was unlucky to miss a ton, hindered further by an un- supportive cast.
Reading a Pitch and to surmise how it plays over five days is an onerous task, pretty much like forecasting fickle English weather ( in its summer i.e). It can be an abstract science, with plenty of scope for hypothesis and conjectures. Sporting Pundits will tell you not to judge a pitch till they see both sides bowl.
The way it batted here, one was tempted to reckon its batting at Rajkot was more an aberration, and not its norm. If their shambolic batting was poor, its execution of bowling plans, heightened by their myopic team selection which consisted of three superfluous spinners and two paceman, was clueless. They would have been better served had they played either Finn or Ball, ahead of an ageing and out of depths Gareth Batty.
Aside, any team that relies on half decent allrounders like the inconsistent Ali, Bairstow, Stokes and Buttler, to bat at crucial and specialist batting positions in the middle order is clearly inviting trouble. Trouble, usually obliges! The wobbly middle order, seemed to lack the Test match nous to eschew flashy stroke play, possess consistent strong defence to keep out the prodigious number of good balls at bay and eke and scrape"ugly runs", in the face of adversity.
By and large, Test matches are won and lost in a minimum of three successive sessions, but the lack of collective wherewithal to build big partnerships bore out a weak will to fight and failed to fill it's boots.
Every prize demands a price and by putting a small price tag on their wickets a lovely chance to score big went abegging as it stepped on a slippery downward slope yet again,even as a feeling of deja vu, enveloped its ranks.
Virat Kohli, on the other hand, must have felt that “God is in his heaven and that all is right with the world” as India, with both bat and ball piled on the agony. Apart from not stitching partnerships in a display of self affliction with the bat, England bowled during the big moments, without it's suddenly deserted fire and focus. It allowed India to escape from jail and prosper from a precarious 204 for 6, on the second afternoon.
That India stacked it's lineup with allrounders was rewarded bountifully as purposeful and irritable lower order partnerships added attritional value further frustrating Cook &Co. Ashwin, with his third fifty of the series, Jadeja, with an aggressive 90 and the fast improving Jayant Yadav, with his maiden fifty, thwarted the resurgent English bid, as the Indian lower order wagged.
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The English haemorrhage was unabated as they sorely missed an extra seamer, with the game poised on a knife edge. India then were yet to attain an impregnable position on the match to dictate on the second afternoon. Fourth innings' runs scoring are usually fraught with inherent dangers on a worn out strip, akin to skating on thin ice. India gorged on the stingless and buffet bowling by batting big and deep, forged an adequate Insurance cover for the fourth inning, with a handy lead.
That the English came back well, albeit sporadically, was indication of the contribution of the ever improving leggie Adil Rashid who had another four for, and Rajkot Centurion and emerging all-rounder, Ben Stokes, who got a fifer.
His altercation with a perpetual hyper and high on adrenaline Virat Kohli, never known to take a back step, made for good gladiatorial viewing, as blinkered robots with deadpan expressions would not quite capture interesting and different characters, which the game must embrace, for sport is nothing minus raw emotions.
Although this game ain't too physical, it thrives on competitive element and even lesser players adopt an head up, chin up attitude, and bristle with self-belief. One may even be tempted to use the expression "WAR MINUS SHOOTING", for such is the intensity to brow beat and get on top of one another. In such a scenario, egos are bruised and the"inner Tarzan" surfaces as primitive war cries are shrieked in victorious celebrations!
The affected lot saves it in their memory banks and it is an endless, vicious cycle, harbouring bitter animosity to mentally disintegrate the opponent.
The key is of course, not to allow this to morph into ugly brinkmanship, spew personal diatribes, cross the "invisible lakshman rekha", attracting fines, bans and corrupt young, fertile minds watching, who tend to ape their heroes.
English batsmen, contrived to sight "an imagined mare", tied both their bootlaces of their shoes together, twisted itself in knots with idle fond hope. And HOPE is never a strategy! That they set India a paltry target in the fourth innings is a grim reflection of its harakiri yet again, with only Root, and an injured Haseeb, displaying a modicum of fight. Losing the young and injured “blood and guts”, Haseeb, is another body blow they could have done without! He heads to the U.K for surgery.
It is hugely debatable as to whether the English, can avoid a HATTRICK of losses, with Stuart Broad likely to perk up, coming in place of Batty, and Durham's Keaton Jennings, son of Ray Jennings , Ex- Coach of SA and RCB, likely to come in for injured Haseeb, and open with Cook as his eleventh partner, after Strauss left the scene in 2012. Such is the predicament that has stared England in the face.
India,for its part, will sweat just a tiny bit about the roller coaster form of a lately distracted Vijay, suffering from doses of yo-yo form and back spasms. Karun Nair had a forgettable debut and he must be persisted with."Jinx" Rahane has endured a miserable run. A player is as good as his last dig, as his huge ton in Indore seems many moons ago. India, wouldn’t drop it's latest vice-captain, after all!
His time might well be at his home in Mumbai, beefing the middle order. Parthiv Patel, on his comeback after an 8-year hiatus, during which time he collared domestic attacks, churning heaps of runs, also turned up for 6 IPL franchisees in 9 seasons! He has now put a spoke in the wheel with good displays, both in front of and behind the stumps. Although he would never ever threaten to be the number one gloveman, his utility skills as a left-handed bat is handy.
His timely runs has allowed India to play him as a keeper, opening the side along with Vijay. Talk of a happy headache! Whatever, it will surely be another new opening pair in this long drawn home season, which has begun to take it's toll with a lengthy casualty list, a modern day scourge. India enjoys an unbeaten run of not losing a game in 16 matches and will be looking to script another whether it wins the toss or not. India will back itself, fate of the coin notwithstanding, as it beat the Aussies four -nil, in 2013, despite losing all tosses.
Chance goes to a prepared mind, in Cricket, as it resembles an outdoor game of Chess, with subtle nous, precise game plan and execution of backroom strategies, and mental fortitude as it's DNA.
The English, have shown that by its failure to prepare and by poor adaption to varied situations, they were prepared to fail! Misfortunes don't come singly either, with news of Woakes rendered hors de combat, possibly joining Ansari and Haseeb! One needn’t be a Clairvoyant or be a super detective like Dr.Holmes, to predict and deduce the outcome as India are equipped and red hot, to drub England to go three nil in Mumbai!
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