At the time of the writing of this match report, it has been almost 40 hours since India so abjectly threw in the towel, giving up with such ease. Had the match lasted into the fifth day’s play, we would in the post-lunch session right now. Not that even a minute of cricket would have been possible. Either on the fourth day or on the fifth. The Hurricane Bertha has so completely taken over the south-west of the United Kingdom, lashing Wales in particular, that even in Manchester it has been raining continuously for the last two days, with no hope of there being a relief in the constant downpour.
Really, with the benefit of hindsight, all that India had to do was to survive the third day’s play. Even with 9 wickets down, the match would have been a draw as the last two days would have been completely washed out. True, it would have been a travesty had the match been a draw after England having been so dominant and yes, it would have been a sad advertisement for cricket – but India would have survived and would go into the last Test to be held at the Oval on August 15th this Friday, with a chance of still winning the Investec series. But no, the Indian team were poor that it took England only 43 overs to take all ten wickets, and beat Hurricane Bertha in a close race to the finish. It was a win for cricket, there is no doubt about that – but what a terrible performance by India!
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England started the day with Joe Root and Jos Buttler in great form, and picking runs easily, without any cause for concern. But captain Mahendr Singh Dhoni’s tactics couldn’t have been more bizarre, opening with the ineffective Ravindra Jadeja to an ultra defensive 7-2 leg side field, seemingly having given up on the idea of taking wickets. The need of the hour was to attack with India’s new fast bowler Varun Aaron, allowing him to take a crack against the young English batsmen, by subjecting them to a barrage of bouncers. We have already seen how susceptible the English batsmen are against the fast rising ball, whether against Mitchell Johnson in Australia or against Ishant Sharma at Lord’s. But this was not to be, and England comfortably made 367 before being all out, with an unbeatable lead of 215.
Everybody in Manchester was aware of the weather reports, and surely even the Indians were aware that they just had to bat out the day with few wickets down, and then to trust Hurricane Bertha to bail them out. It was just a matter of batting out the overs for India. Besides, Stuart Broad had been taken out of action by a cruel bouncer from Aaron which hit him just above his nose. So, one half of England’s strike bowling duo was out and James Anderson was feeling unwell because of an allergy, as captain Alastair Cook said later.
But patience is not a virtue one associates with the “Young Millionaires” of India, as a Times of India editorial called them. After Murali Vijay was quickly trapped leg before wicket in the 11th over of the innings by young Chris Woakes, Cheteshwar Pujara and Gautam Gambhir tried to sedately build the innings. Gambhir looked visibly uncomfortable and that he survived till the 21th over of the match before getting out to Anderson was a minor miracle. Pujara got out the very next over, trapped in front of the wicket by Moeen Ali. So India were now 53 for 3.
It soon became 61 for 4, 61 for 5 and 66 for 6 as Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja were dismissed in quick succession. Kohli falling for 7 in typical style, edging Anderson to the slips. Kohli has played 30 balls against Anderson in this series, getting out 4 times and making just 7 runs. In all, Kohli has made 108 runs in 8 innings in this series.
MS Dhoni and Ravichandran Ashwin tried to battle it out, before Dhoni too was out, to supposedly “part time” off spinner Moeen Ali for 27. The score was 107 for 7, and by the time the last Indian wicket had fallen, Indians had batted only for 43 overs and England had won by an innings and 54 runs. This comes after having played only 46 overs in their first innings. So this means that 20 Indian wickets were lost in just under 90 overs, or in a day’s play of Test cricket. Really, the Young Millionaires of Indian cricket seem to be in a rush to get somewhere. One wonders where, as with Hurricane Bertha in full flow, England seems to be the last place to go sightseeing right now.
