3 unnoticed things from the 1st Test between England and India

After 4 days of an electrifying Test match, it was the England Cricket team that got better of the opponents. Virat Kohli’s efforts went in vain as the English side’s determination and never-say-die attitude helped them to take a 1-0 lead in the series.

It all started on Wednesday, at Edgbaston, when the Kohli and co. locked horns with Joe Root-led team England for the first match of the much-crucial Test series. Joe Root won the toss and asked the visitors to field first. The Indian Captain took a gutsy decision of dropping the team’s best sub-continental batsman, Cheteshwar Pujara. Both the teams were playing with one spinner each in their XI.

England had the upper hand in the first session as they lost only one wicket and scored 83 runs in the first 28 overs. Indian bowlers looked more disciplined in the second session and started to hit the right areas. The game was under India’s pocket by the end of the third session as Ashwin’s magical spell earned him a 4-fer and now England were 9 wickets down with less than 300 runs on the board.

Day 2 started on a high note for India as an inswinger from Mohammed Shami on the 10th ball of the day, wrapped up the English side on the score of 287 runs. Indian openers gave a good start to their team as India didn’t lose any wicket until the 13th over. Murali Vijay’s dismissal on the 4th ball of the 14th over was followed by a “Typical Indian-Overseas-Batting Collapse.” The wickets started falling at regular intervals and it was all up to Virat Kohli, who rescued his team with utter brilliance as he scored his first Test 100 in English conditions and took India to a position of safety. Virat Kohli's 149-runs’ fighting knock helped India to finish their innings on 274 runs.

England was already leading by 13 runs when they came out to bat but the hosts also faced a batting collapse and were 7 down on the score of 87 runs. Then came the Young Sam Curran and the rest, as they say, is history. The 20-year old made sure that his team posts a respectable total as he took the team’s total to the 180-run mark.

India needed to chase 194 runs for creating history and just like the first innings; another Indian-batting collapse took place. India finished day 3 on the score of 110 runs with half of its side back into the pavilion.

There were high hopes from the Indian team on Day 4 but it was very disappointing for the Men in Blue fans as their team seemed helpless after Kohli’s wicket and handed an easy victory to England.

Midst all the action, here are some things that you might have missed.

---

#1 Giving the new ball to Ravichandran Ashwin in the 7th over

Ravi Shastri said before the series that the team management may give a lot of surprises to the fans. The same happened in the 7th over of the 1st day of the Test match. Virat Kohli played a bluff card as he gave the new ball to Ravichandran Ashwin. Whilst the openers were prepared to face the seamers, the Indian Captain asked Ravi Ashwin to bowl with the new red duke ball. This turned out to be a masterstroke as Ashwin, soon, took the wicket of the former English captain Alastair Cook.

#2 Virat Kohli scored more runs in the first innings of the Test match than the entire Test series in 2014

Virat Kohli is arguably the greatest batsman of this generation. The lad from Delhi has scored runs all over the world. The only country where Virat had a poor record was England. Virat, before this series, had an average of 13 in English conditions. But the tables turned as this series kicked off, 3 days ago. Kohli was the highest scorer of the match as he scored 149 runs in the first inning and a fighting 51 in the second inning.

It took just 5 hours for him to surpass the horrific amount of runs that he scored in all the 10 innings of the 2014 Test series. Kohli scored 134 runs in 5 matches in the disastrous 2014 series while in this series, he managed to score 13 more runs in the first inning of the tour itself.

#3 An Asian side is yet to win a Test match at Edgbaston

All eyes were on the Indian cricket team on Day 4 of the Test match as they were likely to clinch a thumping victory. But a wonderful bowling display from the English side bundled out India on the score of 162 runs. The hosts won the test by 35 runs and broke the dream of Asian teams for yet another time. Asian sides have played at Edgbaston for 16 times but have never been victorious. India was expected to create history but England’s dominating performance took away the chances of winning at Edgbaston by an Asian team for yet another time.

Asian Team’s performance at Edgbaston (Birmingham)

Played - 16, Won - 0, Lost - 12, Drawn - 4