On my visit to the Ageas Bowl and a series that drifted away
The Southampton experience
I landed in the UK as the 2nd session of Day 2 was about to end. The immigration officer didn't think England had a chance to bounce back in this test - until I told him that Kohli had just been dismissed. I started driving to Southampton and was glad to realize that radio commentary was available in England - a lovely change from the US where the majority don't even know about the sport. As I was driving, some ridiculous shots like Ashwin's reverse sweep put England right back in the game and I was very nervous about India’s chances. Despite Pujara's incredible 132, I reached Southampton feeling India were about 50-75 runs short of what they needed to win this test.
On Day 3, I walked over from my hotel to the stadium and took my seat at around the wide mid-on/third man view. With this team's history of finding it hard to chase targets over 200 in the 4th innings, I was convinced that India needed to restrict England to a lead of 175 or under. Unfortunately for India though, this was undoubtedly the best day to bat in this entire test series. There was very little help from the conditions, and yet all three Indian pacers - Bumrah, Ishant and Shami kept beating the bat and made the English batsmen work hard. Kohli showed a lot of trust in Ashwin as well, but this did not materialize into any wickets. I certainly felt he was over-bowled and Shami was brought into the attack a little late. England had a good first session but Shami managed to pull the game back with a wicket on either side of the lunch break. England were 92/4 at this point and India needed to bowl the hosts out within the next 100 runs.
Two 'chaps' sitting next to me seamed very friendly and one of them was a long-time supporter of Hampshire Cricket. He talked about the days of Andy Roberts and Malcolm Marshall playing at Hampshire and was disappointed that the county isn't doing as well anymore. In spite of being supporters of the English team, they were certainly enjoying watching India's pacers and were amazed how India's fitness mission had allowed them to produce so many genuine quick bowlers. The other mentioned that his son lives in Los Angeles and talked about the US and how Americans use different words than those used by the English. (example: Trash can instead of dustbin or sidewalk instead of pavement).
On the field though, the hosts continued to march on and with the score at 152/5 and England's in-form lower order to come - India's chances looked bleak. They needed something sensational to either wrap England up in a few runs or a sensational batting effort in the 4th innings to chase a 200+ score on a pitch which had started to keep low on occasions. After Jos Buttler and Sam Curran put on 50 runs for the 7th wicket, it was clear that India needed the later to keep the series alive. In the stands, the spectators were having a good time. About 20 people in my stands had collected empty beer glasses and stacked them horizontally to make a 15-foot long 'snake'. Everyone got involved and kept shouting 'beat the snake' asking others to add more glasses. They even asked Pujara fielding on the boundary to sign the snake and he got booed when he didn't oblige.
Ashwin had bowled about 30 overs in the day and managed to just get 1 wicket. It couldn't help but think that India should have gone with Ravindra Jadeja instead of half-fit Ashwin and maybe it would have made a difference. Our pace trio though, had done little wrong all day despite England finishing up at 260/8. As many experts mentioned, this is probably the best pace bowling attack India has ever had - and it was certainly great to watch them live.
Day 4 started with India wrapping the last two English wickets for just 11 runs. I was sitting a father-son duo who played cricket for their local clubs and are still involved with setting up the pitch and ground. They were angry at Broad since he didn't do any batting practice before play started (until Anderson and Curran) and attributed his first ball dismissal to that. India needed 245 and my neighbors asked me if India will win this game. I predicted that India will lose the game by about 40 runs, but they just dismissed that claim, calling me pessimistic. The pitch had certainly deteriorated since yesterday and this was evident almost right away with KL Rahul being dismissed off a ball that just rolled past him to hit the wickets.
Not long after that, India found themselves at 21/3 with Kohli and Rahane both new to the crease. Any outside chances of India winning could be disregarded at this point. It was clear that even if these two build a partnership, England would just be 1 wicket from getting into the Indian lower order which hadn't been consistent this series. As an Indian supporter, I was just hoping to see some good batting by India's most trusted pair abroad. Kohli survived a few close calls and made my heart pump fast - no kidding here, my fitbit showed 30 active minutes even though I had barely moved from my seat all day.
India's top two batsmen put on the only 100+ partnership of the match and batted cautiously. There were no extravagant strokes, instead they took a lot of 1s and 2s and batted patiently against Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid. In spite of the wonderful performances we have seen by Kohli throughout the series and Pujara's 132 - Rahane's 50 in this innings was one of the best performances from an Indian batsman. Moeen Ali kept hitting the rough outside the off-stump and got balls to turn and jump - yet Rahane looked in control almost all day. It was one of the better 4th innings knocks I have ever seen and he had shown great application and discipline. When he raised his bat for 50, he had hit only 1 four and batted 3 hours.
With the target was less than 120 runs away, I started to dream of a historic test win - but Moeen Ali didn't let this dream flourish. He managed to get a little part of Kohli's glove and had him walk back for a well compiled 58. Hardik disappointed yet again as he was dismissed without getting off the mark. Rishabh Pant walked in and it was clear very quickly that he had been given the freedom to play his shots. This was a good tactic since India needed a little over 100 and it was more likely to win by closing in on the target than trying to bat for time. The father-son duo next to me were nervous as Pant pulled off a couple of boundaries. I was still 'pessimistic' in their view, since I was convinced that it was England's game.
As Rahane was dismissed, Ashwin was left with only the tail to chase 80+ runs. It was clear that India had lost the test on Day 2 when they failed to put on a lead of about 100 runs. Only a miracle could have changed the situation from thereon, but India didn't manage to produce one. Apart from the result, I got to watch two amazing days of test cricket with both teams competing hard and the match swinging from one side to another. The people I had watched the cricket with were very warm and knowledgeable - many of them knew top domestic performers and talked about county cricket in detail. All in all, it had been an experience to remember with beautiful weather, some top-class cricket and wonderful spectators to interact with.
Observations from the stand
One of the many reasons I enjoy watching Cricket live is to watch the players closely and learn about the stars more closely than television allows you to. One of the first things I noticed during India’s bowling was Ishant’s role in field setting for the fast bowlers. On multiple occasions, I noticed Rahane asking Ishant if Bumrah wanted the square leg at the boundary or next to the umpire. Ishant would instruct Rahane without even asking Bumrah and this reminded me of the role that Zaheer Khan played for India in 2011 World Cup. I had read articles and reports stating how Ishant is the spearhead of this Indian attack, but Day 3 showed it was really the case. Kohli seemed to set the initial field and Ishant along with the bowler with adjust it as per their bowling plan.
Jasprit Bumrah was fielding at third man boundary while he bowled one of his many spells on Day 3. Between the overs, Bumrah was very focused – constantly talking to himself, thinking about his bowling and talking animatedly when the 12th man or team staff were standing next to him at the boundary. When he wasn’t bowling, he was a lot more relaxed and even showed a couple of bhangra moves on the request of Bharat Army supporters. Bumrah seemed to have an on/off switch and he used it to ensure he wasn’t mentally tired. This was in stark contrast to Mohammed Shami – who was relaxed throughout the day and occasionally even signed autographs during an ongoing spell.
The other observation I made was around the captaincy and bowling changes. While this team is widely seen as Virat Kohli’s team – it was clear that he values the inputs provided by Ajinkya Rahane. Numerous times between overs, I saw Kohli walk in the direction of Rahane to run something by him or Rahane run to Kohli to suggest something. On one occasion, Kohli signaled to Bumrah to warm-up and bowl the next over from the hotel end, when Rahane ran to him and asked him to keep Ashwin on for another over and Kohli followed his call. Based on Day 3, it certainly felt as if the team was run by Kohli with constant inputs from Rahane.
Reflections from the series
As a fan, it was terribly disappointing to see India come close on multiple occasions on this English tour and yet not be able to win games. On twitter, a lot of people have criticized India’s ability to bat in the 4th innings as the reason for the loss. In this season, India have lost close games while chasing in Cape Town, Birmingham and now at Southampton. It made me wonder if the Indian team of 2006-2011, which won test series in West Indies, England, New Zealand and drew in SA, were better in the 4th innings. In test matches away from home after 1st Jan 2000, India have been asked to chase more than 100 runs on 29 occasions and they have successfully chased the target on only 4 occasions. The last of these was when India chased 257 in Colombo in 2010. Therefore, there is little evidence that any previous Indian team was better at chasing 4th innings targets than this one is. In fact, in the last 10 years except for South Africa, no other team has consistently done a job of chasing targets away from home. This of course does not mean I am defending the Indian batsmen. The truth is, despite the demons of the various pitches and the strength of opposition bowling line-ups, India should have chased down at least 1 of the 3 tests mentioned above.
The other observation that is worth making is that India has been batting last often in recent times. This comes down to Kohli’s poor luck at winning tosses. India have none of the tosses on English tour and in fact, they lost 4 of the 5 tosses when England visited India in 2016. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this Indian team has had genuinely bad luck on this English tour. India’s top seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar couldn’t participate in the test series in conditions tailor-made for him and India has lost every toss. The 2nd test at Lords was certainly another example of this – India was put into bat on a gloomy day after 1.5 days of rain and the sun came out when England batted on Day 3. To add to this some of the decisions haven’t gone India’s way. Examples from the 4th test include Rahane being dismissed by Stokes off a no-ball in the first innings and Ishant being warned for running on the pitch in spite of not being close to the danger area.
Despite the poor luck, Indian team will know that better application from the batsmen not named Kohli (or improved catching effort in Birmingham) would have allowed India to level with England at 2-2. With the exception of KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya, none of the batsmen in this line-up were travelling to England for the first time and the fact that we didn’t see consistent scores from anyone except Kohli should hurt their egos. Another aspect of batting that certainly needs to be thought through is our ability to play spin. The fact that Ravi Ashwin has been out-bowled by the opposition spinners abroad consistently shows two things - that Ashwin hasn’t been at his best, and our batsmen haven’t played spin well. In fact, not just abroad – Monty Panesar and Nathan Lyon have embarrassed India at home in the past few years. Back in the late 90’s – Sachin Tendulkar called Laxman Sivaramakrishnan to practice playing spin on turning pitches – this Indian team needs to do something similar and rather quickly - if they want to earn back the tag of a team that tames world’s best spinners.