Rajkot Test: Virat Kohli-Led India Salvage A Draw vs England

Nov 13, 2016 at 5:41 PM

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Rajkot Test: Virat Kohli-Led India Salvage A Draw vs England

This game in many ways relates itself to the first Test between India and Australia at Adelaide in December 2014. The difference was the appetite for runs and trust shown by him on his bowlers. Australian team captain Michael Clarke had full faith on his bowlers as had no hesitation in declaring the innings setting a target of 364, giving a full day and 98 overs to India to chase it down. One of the advantages to the Indian team was that they got a full night sleep and were in readiness to chase down the target next day whereas here in Rajkot, a lead of even 250+ could not satiate Alastair Cook as he set hosts a target of 310. For the obvious reasons, the match was never ever in reach of the Indian team.

In Adelaide, India took every risk to reach the target whereas they did not try it here and the final result was that ‘Pup’ led his team to a win whereas ‘Chef’ prevented his team from achieving a win.

As a result, in a race against a number of overs, England team let the game slip from their hands as they were able to pouch six wickets in 52.3 overs they bowled, a matter of 20 or more overs could have really tilted the game in favour of England.

A hesitant Alastair Cook after scoring 30th first class century went on to play along with Ben Stokes for 15 more overs after the dismissal of Joe root before setting a target of 310 for India.

Never in the race of the chase, the Indian team had a very poor start losing Gautam Gambhir on the last ball of the second over when Chris Woakes took him by his bounce exposing his new stance which got him out the second time in the innings as well. He edged one safely to Joe root at first slips on a score of 0. The second wicket followed soon in form of Cheteshwar Pujara who just kept himself away from the use of technology, thus giving away his wicket. The third wicket of Murali Vijay followed and lit up some hopes in England bowlers and tension was quite reflective on captain Kohli’s face. The awkward dismissal of Ajinkya Rahane nearly opened the door for England team before R. Ashwin once again shone with the bat providing a total blackout in wickets column till next 16 overs, wiping out England hopes to win the game.

A wicket followed soon but Indian team was unaffected by it.

At once, the match seemed to be a ditto of the second Test between Australia and South Africa in Adelaide 2012 where Australia needed two wickets in an over whereas England needed four but England were given 12 extra minutes to get those. At the end, the result was the same, batting team was able to salvage a draw in the end.

Kohli took a sigh of relief and an unrecognisable captain Cook, who was wearing a helmet fielding at short leg was probably was not happy. To win the game, he should have declared early but failed to understand the need of the hour.

Despite a draw, England can be crowned as the winners in the end as they dominated most of the sessions. Indian team has to work on their basics right from the top to bottom. A few changes in the Indian playing XI are expected for the next game, for sure.

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