Barring a torrential downpour in London, we are headed for a fascinating conclusion to the second Test of the Investec Test series, which got off to a poor start at Trent Bridge, but has since made up in spectacular fashion here at Lord’s. This Test will be seen as one with extraordinary significance, for India, as a win here would mean a resurgence of a young team under captain MS Dhoni, and would mean that the country will finally have moved on from the disastrous last England tour of 2011, where they had been whitewashed 4-0.
For England, a loss here, which seems almost a certainty now with 4 top order batsmen already back in the pavilion, with over 200 runs still left to be scored, would have far reaching implications. For one, this would signal the lowest point of what has been a terrible year for English cricket, which began with the disastrous Ashes tour of Australia late last year, only got worse with a series loss to Sri Lanka, and what seems to be a most likely result, a Test series loss to India.
But what that also means is that Alistair Cook, the Golden Boy of English cricket, so loved by everyone, by the public as well as by the establishment, one who was supposed to take England cricket to its zenith and remain at the top, leading his nation for at least a decade, given his young age of 29, now faces the greatest uncertainty of what has been a great career so far. Cook has already got 8000 Test runs, with two dozen hundreds, but at the moment scoring runs is fast turning into an impossible task for the young captain, and making hundreds is something he seems to have completely forgotten, having made none for the past two years.
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It was a sad sight yesterday to see Cook struggle, as though batting against an attack comprising of Dennis Lillie, Jeff Thompson, Mitchell Johnson and Shane Warne, when he was actually facing the much humbler bowling attack of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Muhammad Shami, Ravindra Jadeja and Murali Vijay. It was tragic that someone so admired by cricket fans all over the world for the consistency of his big hundreds has been reduced to state where he struggles to get into his twenties, and hardly ever seems to get past that these days. Cook has made only 115 runs from 7 Test matches this summer and he struggled to make an incredibly laborious 22 off 93 balls before finally meeting a tame end, softly getting out to Ishant Sharma, edging him behind to Dhoni.
The vultures have been circling Cook for a while now, and it does look almost certain now that they will get their prey, as Cook’s career, is at least temporarily on its last legs. It’s hard to see the England captain joining MS Dhoni for the next toss at Headingley, unless a miraculous England win materializes later today. For that to happen, a lot depends on Joe Root and Moeen Ali, the batsmen still at the crease to play the innings of their brief cricketing lives, and for Matt Prior to rediscover his form of old. It’s not impossible for England to overhaul the target set by India of 319, but getting 213 runs on the last day on a bowler friendly Lord’s track, with just 6 wickets left, seems highly improbable. Most likely, the English innings will fold by lunch or a little after that.
Earlier yesterday, Ravindra Jadeja, the pantomime villain, did all he could to make the English crowd hate him even more, making a swashbuckling 68 which wouldn’t be out of place in an IPL match. His fabulous celebration on reaching his fifty, when he twirled his bat around as though wielding a sword, had his enemy Jimmy Anderson seeing red, but unable to do anything about it, has Jadeja smashed Anderson all over the park when he did bowl to him. Bhuvneshwar Kumar showed just why he is as good at batting as he is as a bowler, making what has become a customary Test match fifty. Kumar has been sensational in this series scoring three Test fifties in 4 innings batting at number 9 and bagging tons of wickets.
So, Indian cricket seems set for a spectacular victory this Monday, much to the joy of a vast cricket mad nation.
