1st Test: Alastair Cook’s Ton, Haseeb Hameed Put England Way Ahead In Rajkot Game
Nov 13, 2016 at 6:05 PM
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x51tfpi_whats-going-on_fun
Call it urgency or a late realisation which brought a thought in England’s mind that they have to compute a result out of this game starting the day, batting at a speed of snail against an abortive bowling line-up, suddenly half an hour before lunch, the visiting batsmen decided to fire, leading to loss of a crucial wicket of Haseeb Hameed, whose family and newbie fans had butterflies in their stomach and were eager to see him scoring a ton on his debut. However, probably implementing captain’s advice, Hameed played a strange shot and failed to eclipse Amit Mishra’s height, which Mishra grabbed to upset the youngster.
Joe root, on the other hand, should not be blamed as he was asked to follow the captain’s call. Still, 260 runs ahead in the game with eight wickets in hand, England team, which looked in no hurry at the start, suddenly half hour before lunch was looking a bit uncomfortable. Alastair Cook, meanwhile, reached his 30th century in the last minutes before lunch, to take a note, he is still playing the ball with ease, handing the hitting baton to others. The tactic of England is clear now, Cook will look to defend while likes of Ben Stokes and co. will go for the kill.
Probably taking Vijay’s warning seriously, the England team is still not sure about what can be an apt target for them on this bowler-unfriendly pitch. With 61 overs to go in the day, England team will look to score something around 300 on the board to keep Indian away from the shore. It may be foolish to expect a result out of this game as it has entered a state from where there is no chance a team being handed the winning trophy for this game.