Kolkata: In the first session on Day 4, India added 63 runs in nearly 25 overs. The first 100 runs of the fourth-wicket partnership between KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant consumed 194 balls. These are numbers you could relate to in Test cricket. Note however the small discrepancy in India’s scoring rate across two innings of the first test. On a spicy Headingley pitch that was occasionally under cloud cover, India had ended the first innings with a run rate of 4.16. Batting becomes comparatively easier in the second innings with the pitch easing up and the outfield quickening but India still chose to be cautious for a while after Shubman Gill played on to his stumps.
It was not without reason. Reflect on the few years of the Stokes-McCullum axis and you know how England prefer to operate in Test cricket, with an unconditional commitment towards playing the sport without any hang-ups. It is a rallying call their players have responded to with an audacity that has spurred fantastic victories and riveting finishes. But it’s also a one-dimensional outlook without any contingency. Slowing down the pace of the game thus was a brilliant way of asking questions of England they don’t want to answer.
The dismissal of Gill could have led to more wickets. Rahul was patience incarnate but Pant was at the other end, and you know it’s not always chanceless from him. But England were flat throughout. The scorecard will never dwell on the breakup of the innings showing this detail but those 194 balls underscored the practicality of winning a Test that India resorted to.
England, for all their philosophy of playing entertaining cricket, weren’t fooling anyone too. The bowling was uninspiring, field placements even more predictable as England slowly slipped into a state where they were waiting for a mistake rather than forcing India to make it. At the heart of it was the first session, not too madcap, not too frenetic, just absorbing enough to keep everyone interested.
One day left, 90 overs theoretically. There is forecast for rain but England nowadays need around 50 overs to overhaul 300-plus chases. But what often gets overlooked in the hype over their chasing belligerence is how conveniently the concept of playing time is relegated to the backburner. Which is why England found it difficult to embrace India’s tactic of slowing down the pace of their second innings. Rahul and Pant leaving the ball — a dour, boring, process — for the bulk of the first session, rendered England’s tactic useless.
While India were ticking the right boxes, England were leaving too many loose ends. Slip catching was one such area. To straightaway attack the batter’s outside edge after lunch is an age-old tactic that England didn’t pay enough attention to. Pant was on 31, still trying to find the right way of playing in the conditions, but England played into his hands by starting with no slip fielders to Josh Tongue. First ball after lunch Pant could have easily edged off Tongue but Stokes failed to react. Next over from Tongue, Pant did get an edge that should have been a regulation catch at first slip. Instead, it raced away to the boundary.
Chance missed, Stokes should have ideally doubled down on the close-in fielding. But so unusually was he focused on being defensive, spreading the field around, that he never woke up to the fact that Pant could again risk runs behind the wicket. Which happened, again to Tongue around an hour into the second session. Pant walloping two sixes against Shoaib Bashir should have been the cue that he was warming up to play big shots. But Stokes missed it again. This time Pant’s edge flew through the vacant second slip area.
Cricket is still a game of taking 20 wickets. So, to miss two chances this big in order to save boundaries is a mighty departure for an England side known to play high-risk, high-reward cricket. That, notwithstanding how this Test pans out, is a win in itself.
