A truly thorough showing
From Madhu Jawali, Chennai: Dec 22, 2016, DHNS
The most pleasing aspect of India’s series win over England wasn’t about the performances of the Indian bowlers. It wasn’t about some of the scintillating batting displays. It wasn’t even about the final scoreline of 4-0, though it has a nice ring to it.
Virat Kohli brought up his highest individual score (235 in Mumbai) as did KL Rahul, who fell on the cusp -- 199 -- of a maiden double hundred in Chennai. Rahul’s friend and State-mate Karun Nair, however, swept his way into the record books with an unbeaten 303 in only his third Test innings. R Ashwin (303 runs and 28 wickets) further enhanced his reputation as India’s biggest match winner at the moment while Ravindra Jadeja appeared to have kept his best for the last when he bamboozled the Englishmen with his best bowling (7/48) figures in an innings.
As impressive as these individual accomplishments were, what would have pleased the Indian team the most is the fact that this series victory came on “good Test pitches”. Long accused of winning on home-spun surfaces, India could rightfully claim in this series that all their wins came on wickets that were far from being referred to as the rank-turners. That England raised totals of 537 (in the first Test), 400 (fourth) and 477 (fifth) after winning tosses in all those matches, reflected the quality of the surfaces. Even in Chennai, where England capitulated in three and half hours on the final day, the pitch remained true through the duration of the match.
“All wickets have been good cricket wickets and we have had to play good cricket to win these (first three) Tests, and none of the matches have been surrendered by the opposition,” Kohli had said after winning the series. “We have had to work hard for it and the bowlers have had to work harder in this series, I feel, to get batsmen out and to control the flow of runs as well. We have used more in-out fields in this series than we did in the New Zealand series. So it’s pretty evident that the wickets have been better,” had he explained.
While the 4-0 score may suggest England’s rout, which in some sense is true as well, Kohli felt his team had to work hard for each win. “I don’t think it’s been easy. We have been put under pressure many times. I think I would give my team a lot of credit for bouncing back from those tough situations. We haven’t got anything on the platter. England applied themselves more than what New Zealand did. I think New Zealand had lack of experience apart from just Kane (Williamson) and Ross (Taylor). The others were relatively new to these conditions. This (England) is a side that has got quality batsmen, they have been performing for a while now, very consistent. Even the (Indian) bowlers understood that it will be hard and I am glad that they took up the challenge well,” Kohli felt.
Another factor that added more sheen to India’s success was the inspiring role of their pacemen. They comfortably outbowled their more experienced English counterparts; they were more pacy, probing and persistent. Mohammad Shami was outstanding till he walked away with a sore knee before the fourth Test. Umesh Yadav was the workhorse that hustled and harried the English batsmen with his pace and bounce. They used the short ball more effectively and purchased more reverse swing than their rival numbers while giving crucial breakthroughs and providing welcome relief to overworked spinners.
Kohli attributed this quality to increased fitness levels and the understanding of their roles. “It certainly helps when guys have identified their faults in the past and they are willing to work on it,” he noted. “I think one area that they have really worked hard on is there consistency bit and understanding that you don’t necessarily have to come at the batsmen all the time. It’s important to have patience in a particular session and for that you need to get fitter, you need to get fitter to bowl those disciplined lines, those fourth-fifth stump lines…
“They are not desperate to come and pick up five wickets and show that why are all spinners taking all those wickets. They are pretty happy playing their roles and as a captain, I think, that’s the most important thing in a team when people are willing to play their roles and not get desperate or selfish at any stage of the game. I think that’s been a key factor for us to get the results that we wanted and come back from difficult situations,” he elaborated.
DH News Service
Virat Kohli brought up his highest individual score (235 in Mumbai) as did KL Rahul, who fell on the cusp -- 199 -- of a maiden double hundred in Chennai. Rahul’s friend and State-mate Karun Nair, however, swept his way into the record books with an unbeaten 303 in only his third Test innings. R Ashwin (303 runs and 28 wickets) further enhanced his reputation as India’s biggest match winner at the moment while Ravindra Jadeja appeared to have kept his best for the last when he bamboozled the Englishmen with his best bowling (7/48) figures in an innings.
As impressive as these individual accomplishments were, what would have pleased the Indian team the most is the fact that this series victory came on “good Test pitches”. Long accused of winning on home-spun surfaces, India could rightfully claim in this series that all their wins came on wickets that were far from being referred to as the rank-turners. That England raised totals of 537 (in the first Test), 400 (fourth) and 477 (fifth) after winning tosses in all those matches, reflected the quality of the surfaces. Even in Chennai, where England capitulated in three and half hours on the final day, the pitch remained true through the duration of the match.
“All wickets have been good cricket wickets and we have had to play good cricket to win these (first three) Tests, and none of the matches have been surrendered by the opposition,” Kohli had said after winning the series. “We have had to work hard for it and the bowlers have had to work harder in this series, I feel, to get batsmen out and to control the flow of runs as well. We have used more in-out fields in this series than we did in the New Zealand series. So it’s pretty evident that the wickets have been better,” had he explained.
While the 4-0 score may suggest England’s rout, which in some sense is true as well, Kohli felt his team had to work hard for each win. “I don’t think it’s been easy. We have been put under pressure many times. I think I would give my team a lot of credit for bouncing back from those tough situations. We haven’t got anything on the platter. England applied themselves more than what New Zealand did. I think New Zealand had lack of experience apart from just Kane (Williamson) and Ross (Taylor). The others were relatively new to these conditions. This (England) is a side that has got quality batsmen, they have been performing for a while now, very consistent. Even the (Indian) bowlers understood that it will be hard and I am glad that they took up the challenge well,” Kohli felt.
Another factor that added more sheen to India’s success was the inspiring role of their pacemen. They comfortably outbowled their more experienced English counterparts; they were more pacy, probing and persistent. Mohammad Shami was outstanding till he walked away with a sore knee before the fourth Test. Umesh Yadav was the workhorse that hustled and harried the English batsmen with his pace and bounce. They used the short ball more effectively and purchased more reverse swing than their rival numbers while giving crucial breakthroughs and providing welcome relief to overworked spinners.
Kohli attributed this quality to increased fitness levels and the understanding of their roles. “It certainly helps when guys have identified their faults in the past and they are willing to work on it,” he noted. “I think one area that they have really worked hard on is there consistency bit and understanding that you don’t necessarily have to come at the batsmen all the time. It’s important to have patience in a particular session and for that you need to get fitter, you need to get fitter to bowl those disciplined lines, those fourth-fifth stump lines…
“They are not desperate to come and pick up five wickets and show that why are all spinners taking all those wickets. They are pretty happy playing their roles and as a captain, I think, that’s the most important thing in a team when people are willing to play their roles and not get desperate or selfish at any stage of the game. I think that’s been a key factor for us to get the results that we wanted and come back from difficult situations,” he elaborated.
DH News Service
Batting
Player Mat Inns Runs HS Ave 100/50
Virat Kohli 5 8 655 235 109.16 2/2
Joe Root 5 10 491 124 49.10 1/4
Cheteshwar Pujara 5 8 401 124 50.12 2/1
Moeen Ali 5 9 381 146 42.33 2/1
Alastair Cook 5 10 369 130 36.90 1/1
Player Mat Inns Runs HS Ave 100/50
Virat Kohli 5 8 655 235 109.16 2/2
Joe Root 5 10 491 124 49.10 1/4
Cheteshwar Pujara 5 8 401 124 50.12 2/1
Moeen Ali 5 9 381 146 42.33 2/1
Alastair Cook 5 10 369 130 36.90 1/1
Bowling
Player Mat Wkts BBI Ave 5WI 10WM
R Ashwin 5 28 6/55 30.25 3 1
Ravindra Jadeja 5 26 7/48 25.84 1 1
Adil Rashid 5 23 4/82 37.43 0 0
M Shami 3 10 3/63 25.20 0 0
Moeen Ali 5 10 3/98 64.90 0 0
No comments:
Post a Comment