The
afternoon of 9th February 2021 was a special one for English
Cricket, they have achieved one of the toughest goals in cricket, winning a
Test in India, it was perfect performance for Joe Root’s men who have dominated
the Chennai Test and ultimately registering a win which will be remembered in
years to come by
As Jimmy
Anderson hustled in Chennai’s heat to produce one of the finest spells of all
time, the back of India’s batting was broken by world class reverse swing
bowling. An hour later it was not only broken but decimated by a team which was
hungry for much more. Joe Root’s men has achieved massive success as they
registered a victory of enormous proportion in the First Test at Chennai.
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| Joe Root made a fantastic double |
For those
who understand Test Cricket and follow it religiously also know that one of the
toughest challenges in Test Cricket has been to defeat India in India, and to
understand how special this win is for England we have to see how India have
fared at home in Tests Cricket.
Since
England’s historic series win in India in 2012-13, India has almost been
unbeatable at home. In Eight years, since then they have not lost a single series
in India and out 34 Tests they have played during this duration, they just lost
1 Test, before this series. The record in fact speaks about the epic task that
Root’s men had in their hand, above all the scars of previous tour in 2016-17
had not been forgotten completely. In that series England lost two tests by an
innings margin, even after scoring 400 in the first innings. It was one of the
reasons why Root challenged his troop to score 600-700 in first innings and
then to pile pressure on India.
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| James Anderson bowled a brilliant spell on final morning |
The captain
led the team by example, he notched up a magnificent double hundred and was ably
supported by Dom Sibley who have continued to grind out since the second test
against Sri Lanka. The most important thing for England was to bat and bat and
tire the Indians along to make the maximum use of the pitch when it was at its
best. Scoring 578 was the target achieved but it was only job half done, they
needed to skittle a much vaunted Indian batting line which they did riding on
Dom Bess’s brilliant bowling which limited India to 337 only, thereby giving a
vital 241 run lead in the first innings to England .
While India
did limited England to 178 in the final session of the fourth day but by then
it was more of a battle of how much time England will be giving India to
survive. England decided to give 107 overs to India and by the end of the day
have taken vital scalp of Rohit Sharma who was undone by a peach of delivery
from Jack Leach. However still it was huge challenge for the English bowlers to
take 9 wickets on the last day.
When the
last day started all eyes were on England’s spin twins and Leach got the wicket
of Pujara but then Gill and Kohli looked confident to take India to safety
before Jimmy Anderson returned to produce one of the top class spells of
reverse swing. He first cleaned up Gill and then with sent Ajinkya Rahane’s
stump cartwheeling with a sensational ball. Few balls later he deceived Rishabh
Pant to get him caught by Joe Root, this ultimately broke India’s back as they
slumped to 110-5.
Washington
Sundar was accounted for duck as India were left stuttering at 117-6 while
Ravichandran Ashwin tried to stich a partnership with skipper Kohli and when
they batted for 14 overs, memory of Sydney started surfacing however Cheapuk’s
pitch was far more helpful and as Leach dismissed Ashwin and Stokes’s grubber
uprooted Kohli’s stump, England romped to a memorable win by 227 runs . India
were bundled for 192 runs and lost their only 2nd Test on home soil
since January 2013.
India’s
record and its rarity of loosing Test at home made it even more memorable for Joe Root and his side as they became the first
team in four years to defeat India on its home soil. The challenge though lies
ahead, how England can continue to dominate India and win again will be a big
question ? Though there is no two thoughts that India will come hard in
remaining three tests but till then Root and his men can savour this win which
would be remembered for years to come by.
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