India Tour of England 2018 1st Test - Played on Aug 1st to 4th at Birmingham
England Cricket Team’s 1000 th Test, couldn’t have got any better
It was an Astonishing thrill and entertainment, shown up by the Top TEST Cricket playing Nation.
Match ending in 10 th session (leaving 5 un-played sessions) and all 40 wickets being knocked off, proves how entertaining it was.
Bowlers from both the teams were evenly fought, but in the end, it was the English bowlers who proved, that they were better than the travelers from Sub-continent.
Result: England won by 31 runs in the 10 th session of the Test Match.
Man of the Match: Sam Curran (Playing just his 2 nd International Test Match)
Having won the toss, Root decided they would bat first. Even though the match was dominated by PACE Attack, it was Aswin, the Indian Spinner who got the first wicket of the series and the Match – Knocked down the stumps of Cook. With 2 good partnerships, England were sailing smoothly, expected to post a Big total in the first Innings.
A terrible middle and lower order collapse forced England to bundle out for just 287, a slump from 215 for 3 wickets. Root the top scorer with 80 runs and Bairstow followed with 70. Hats off to Ashwin and Shami contributed for 7 of those wickets and wicket each to Umesh and Ishant. Ironically the collapse was triggered by a runout (Root, ran out by Virat when attempting a 2 nd run)
Day 1 yielded 9 England wickets and remaining wicket fell soon on 2 nd day morning. With the Pitch being too good to bat on, Indians were expected to post a big total with the Batting line up they had. Vijay and Dhawan gave a good start posting 50 runs. From there it was periodical wicket taking from English bowlers forcing India to slump to 182/8. Kohli fought back with the Indian tail and reduced the 1st Inning gap to just 1 runs.
Indians were folded for 274 and they have not batted even one full day. Kohli the top scored with 149 Runs (almost 50% of the total Indian Score). Curran took 4 wickets and 2 wickets each to Anderson, Stokes and Rashid. The same day when they were bowled out in their first Innings, English team started the 2 nd Innings. But Ashwin produce a photocopy of the 1 st innings to bowl out Cook again. The day ended with England losing their 1 st wicked in the 2 nd Innings.
Day 2 yielded 2 England wickets (1 in 1 st Innings ans 1 in 2 nd Innings) and all Indian wickets - Total of 12 wickets have fallen in the day.
Indian bowling dominance continued day 3 and caused England slump to 87/7 in their 2 nd Innings, before Curran heroic 63 with their tail helped them to reach 180. Setting a target of 194 with almost 7 sessions to go. India lost 5 wickets before day close knowing 110 off their target, requiring a mere 84 to win the match in 6 more sessions. With Kohli still at the crease, its expected to be a walk in the park.
Day 3 yielded 9 England wickets and 5 Indian Wickets – 14 wickets in total.
Day 4 started with an early wicket of Karthik and a bit of resistance from Kohli, before they were wrapped up for 162 leaving 31 behind their target. They have batted around 20 overs and added 52 runs in the day, proves the bowling dominance again. The day close with yielding the remaining 5 wickets. Kohli top scored again in 2 nd Innings with 51 runs and 4 wickets to Ben Stokes, 2 each to Anderson and Broad, 1 each to Rashid and Curran.
It’s always a wonderful treat to watch the test match in English conditions, this match couldn’t have resulted better with everything was in perfect place, like the weather, the pitch etc., It showed they paved their way, for the occasion, ceremony – whatever we can call it as – English Teams 1000 th TEST Match – a Milestone to be remembered.
The seaming condition were feathered with a visual treat to watch.
Little sessions of Pace dominance of both teams Ishant, Shami, Umesh, Anderson, Stokes and Curran.
Spinner too chipped in with beauty of wickets and proved Birmingham pitch is not just a PACE Paradise.
They all should have enjoyed their spells, which is proven in wickets column.
Batsmen enjoyed batting by fighting the challenges and scoring, ensuring the fun is the unlimited.
Being an Indian Cricket fan, I am little disappointed with the result, but have thoroughly enjoyed this test match with the quality of cricketing display and expecting it to continue in the whole series. Keeping my Fingers crossed…
-Aravindhan Panneerselvam