IND vs ENG, 1st Test: Haseeb Hameed Extends England’s Dominance On An Otherwise Dull Day

Apr 6, 2019 at 2:14 PM

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IND vs ENG, 1st Test: Haseeb Hameed Extends England’s Dominance On An Otherwise Dull Day

After three grueling days of intense Test cricket, India and England are evenly matched in the first Test of this long Test series.

Visitors scored 537 runs in their first inning with the help of centuries from Joe Root, Moeen Ali and Ben Stokes. But the hosts managed to put on a strong performance as local lad Cheteshwar Pujara scored a well built century alongside Murali Vijay who also amassed triple digits in the last session on day 3.

India lost a couple of wickets in the last four balls on Day 3 of the game and were on the back foot going into the penultimate day.

Ajinkya Rahane joined skipper Virat Kohli in the middle as the duo started to keep the English players busy and picked up some useful runs. But Rahane, who looked fairly comfortable, went on the back foot for a ball that was not short enough.

He cramped himself up as the ball hit his pad to deflect onto the stump to give England a breakthrough in just the 9th over the day. Rahane went for 13 (30b) as Kohli was joined by Ravichandran Ashwin in the middle.

The duo managed to put just 12 runs together before Virat Kohli became just the second Indian captain to achieve an unlucky feat.

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Trying to pull a short ball from leggie Adil Rashid, Kohli went on the back-foot but the extra bounce from the pitch saw him adjust his back-foot which was too close to the stump. He knocked a bail off the stump as Jonny Bairstow behind the stumps jumped with joy.

The skipper went for 40 (95b), leaving India trailing by 170 runs .

Wriddhiman Saha joined Ashwin in the middle and put on a steady partnership that kept India in the hunt.

They got the team to Lunch on Day 4 at 411/6, just over 100 runs away from England’s total.

The duo came out after the break with some positive intent and put in a confident performance until Moeen Ali got Saha to edge one to Bairstow. The Indian wicket-keeper walker off disappointingly for 35 (82b) but got his team within 100 runs of the England total.

Ravindra Jadeja looked in form coming out and taking on the English bowlers as he showed by taking on Adil Rasheed and depositing him into the stands. However, he did not last long as the leggie got one back a couple of over later getting one to spit off the pitch and take the glove to lob into the hands of Hammed at short-leg. He went for 12 (26b) but India were getting closer to England’s score in the first innings.

All this while, the Indian offie at the other end slowly got close to yet another Test century. He was joined by Umesh Yadav in the middle but the number 10 for Indian did not look like he wanted to hang on lasting just 12 balls before skying one off Adil Rashid. He went for 2 (12b) leaving Ashwin stranded at 49 at the other end.

Cook could have ended the innings just a couple of balls later but he dropped a sitter of Stuart Broad who got India’s number 11 Shami to edge one to the slips.

Ashwin took full advantage of the chance and started to farm the striker as England found it hard to get Shami back on strike and put some pressure on him.

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Getting to his fifty, Ashwin put another 29 runs on the board for Indian along with Shami before he took on Moeen Ali but could only find Ansari on the midwicket boundary.

India were finally all-out for 488 as the Tea interval was delayed by just 2 minutes for the last Indian wicket. India knew that they had a very small chance of getting anything from this game and Kohli was all set to go for the kill in the final session, a session that could have taken the game either way and produced a result.

The ball was starting to turn viciously and the Indian spin trio were surely in business but Alistair Cook and Haseeb Hameed put an end to any chances of an Indian result from this game.

Kohli opted to start with Shami and Jadeja with the new ball and though the duo troubled the batsmen, neither were able to provide enough consistency to remove either of the openers.

Cook seemed to be thriving in the company of the young Hameed, who showed was positive right from the start. He kept Shami out even as the ball was moving and also showed confidence playing Jadeja even as he beat the outside edge a few times.

Ashwin came into the attack in the 6th over and started to trouble Hammed but the Indian bowlers were not able to put enough pressure on the batsmen and started to leak easy runs away.

It did not look there was going to be a riot at the end of the day as Kohli, aware of the run rate, decided to stick to a defensive field to try and stop England from scoring.

He made some decent bowling changes that almost got India a wicket but just 29 overs into the innings, Hammed picked up his first test fifty with a stylish boundary while also taking the England score past the 100 mark.

Cook looked nervy at times at the other end but with all his experience he managed to keep his wicket and went into the final over of the day, not our on 45 as Hammed raced off to 59.

England ended the day on 114/0, 163 runs ahead of Indian with all 10 wickets in hand and with just 90 overs left in the game, a result looks more and more unlikely.  They have the advantage in the game and it is now up to Cook to try and push for a result or be happy with a draw.

Kohli would still love to sneak a win but will know that a draw is the best possible result.

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