Poor Alistair Cook. Nothing seems to be going right for him. The 29-year old England captain is currently having such a string of bad luck that even his critics would be feeling sorry for him. Well, not all critics. Shane Warne and Kevin Pietersen may well be having a fine chuckle with a drink in hand, watching the England captain have another miserable day in the office.
England started off well enough, first with Jimmy Anderson trapping Indian opener and overnight centurion Murali Vijay , before he could further punish England. Then, an arrogant Ravindra Jadeja came and flashed for a while, before tamely edging Ben Stokes to Matt Prior for a quick 25. The score was 344 then, and India had lost its 6th wicket. But with Dhoni still at the crease, batting well at 82, India were still in control.
What followed after that was a vindication of Alistair Cook’s captaincy, although it lasted only for a moment – a brief moment. Dhoni contrived to get himself run out to a brilliant throw from mid off by Anderson. Then debutant Stuart Binny didn’t do much before offering a simple catch to backward point off Ben Stokes and Ishant Sharma embarrassed himself by not offering a shot to a straight ball from Stuart Broad which was headed for the stumps.
So, suddenly, from a position of strength at 344 for 5, India found themselves in a great spot of bother at 346 for 9. For the first time in the 5-match Investac Test series, England were on top. Finally there was a smile on Alistair Cook’s face. Better times were ahead. But were they, really?
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England have fallen into a bad habit to letting the last wicket of the opposition flourish, especially in the most crucial Test matches. Tino Best got a 96 against England for the West Indies two years ago, and last year, Ashton Agar made a spectacular 98, both batting at number eleven. This match was a throwback to those painful moments for England.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar is known to be an adequate enough batsman, but not so Mohammad Shami, who only had a highest Test score of 11 before this match. Both Kumar and Shami combined well, with Kumar protecting Shami at first, but as Shami grew in confidence, Kumar started trusting his partner more. Shami and Kumar played proper cricketing shots, with a straight bat, showing great temperament that lower order batsmen are not generally known for. Both rotated the strike well and played some magnificent shots, especially off Jimmy Anderson. Kumar got to his fifty, and was soon joined by Shami who got from 44 to 50 in a single blow, hitting Anderson for a straight six. Anderson could only collect his cap from the umpire and walk back without a look back.
India got to a highly respectable score of 457, before Kumar finally holed out to Joe Root in the deep, trying to hit Moeen Ali out of the ground. By then, the duo had put on an incredible 111 for the last wicket and Alistair Cook once again found himself staring at the barrel of defeat.
Things hardly improved much for the England captain when he came out to bat, when a ball from Mohammad Shami got deflected off his thigh pad, while attempting for a leg side flick, and crashed into the stumps, dislodging the bails. Cook had only scored 5 runs. Another low score for Alistair Cook, who seems to have made a habit of getting out cheaply over the last two years. Sam Robson and Gary Ballance prevented any further collapse and took England to stumps with the scoreboard reading 43 for 1.
So that completed another poor day at a Test match for Alistair Cook and England. The England selectors should be worried as this seems to have become a frustrating routine that England are increasingly finding impossible to get out of. India will be hoping for Kumar, Shami and Ishant Sharma to get a lot more bite out of the wicket when the match resumes on Friday.
