After Manchester, I had a doubt whether this Indian team was similar to the one that toured last time. The Oval test proved that the current team's performance mirrored that of the previous one, especially in this test match. The team could not play 90 overs in 2 innings put together. It was time, they thought, to give wickets not just to Broad, Anderson and Moeen alone. Jordan and Woakes would be the beneficiaries this time. The result was that the bowlers themselves were feeling odd that wickets that were hard to come by were being thrown away like candies.
Agreed that the toss was lost on a wicket that helped the bowlers quite a bit on the first day. The batsmen were guilty of not gutsing it out in the tough conditions. The captain showed the way with the help of Ishant Sharma on the first day that a decent score could have been knocked up if the team had shown some application. The procession continued as though the team was in a hurry to finish this test series as early as possible. Five tests were two too much for a team that would have drawn the series if it was a typical three match series. The BCCI wanted to increase its coffers by making the players play five - the players have no role to refuse. They were relative greenhorns on these pitches and the difference in capability and reality showed up so badly!
The bowlers did relatively better but the combination of umpiring howlers (in the absence of DRS) as well as poor slip catching meant that the English batsmen could continue their run-scoring. The runs were conceded at a high run-rate that there was enough time to skittle out the Indian team by tea even including a rain-break in between. No more words can be used to explain the performance in the last innings of the match. The team perished in 30 overs with two run-outs! What were the batsmen thinking?
Anyway, the test series ends and the teams will now play an ODI series. The Indian ODI teams have not won anything on their previous overseas tours and hopefully they will open their accounts here purely because England will opt to rest some of their star players after the five match test series.
Agreed that the toss was lost on a wicket that helped the bowlers quite a bit on the first day. The batsmen were guilty of not gutsing it out in the tough conditions. The captain showed the way with the help of Ishant Sharma on the first day that a decent score could have been knocked up if the team had shown some application. The procession continued as though the team was in a hurry to finish this test series as early as possible. Five tests were two too much for a team that would have drawn the series if it was a typical three match series. The BCCI wanted to increase its coffers by making the players play five - the players have no role to refuse. They were relative greenhorns on these pitches and the difference in capability and reality showed up so badly!
The bowlers did relatively better but the combination of umpiring howlers (in the absence of DRS) as well as poor slip catching meant that the English batsmen could continue their run-scoring. The runs were conceded at a high run-rate that there was enough time to skittle out the Indian team by tea even including a rain-break in between. No more words can be used to explain the performance in the last innings of the match. The team perished in 30 overs with two run-outs! What were the batsmen thinking?
Anyway, the test series ends and the teams will now play an ODI series. The Indian ODI teams have not won anything on their previous overseas tours and hopefully they will open their accounts here purely because England will opt to rest some of their star players after the five match test series.
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