Prior to the first test in Hyderabad starting from 25th January , England team inspired by Bazball tactics desired to apply same on Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma led Indian team . With many speculated England’s Bazball tactics to be fruitless on spinning tracks in India 4 days later on 28th January inspired by scintillating 196 runs by vice captain Ollie Pope and a 7 wicket haul in the second innings on debut by spinner Tom Hartley , England made Bazball talking as India slumped to 28 runs defeat giving 1-0 lead to visitor England.
India headed into this match on the backs of experienced spin trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel who has around 830 combined wickets to their name in opposite to spin counterparts in England who only had the experience of Jack Leach to their name with Rehan Ahmed playing only his second test in subcontinent and Tom Hartley on debut in addition to Joe Root who could roll his arm over .
After taking 190 runs lead on Day 3 and reducing England to 163 for 5 thanks due to the lethal bowling spell by speedster Jasprit Bumrah and the spinners, many would have speculated an Indian easy win going to Vishakhapatnam 1-0 ahead in the series, but hardly anyone knew Day 4 would converge on the opposite side thanks due to the resilience and grit shown by Ollie Pope who gave a masterclass to bat in Indian conditions using sweep shot effective use by making epic 196 runs.
This innings allowed England who were out of the game for first two days to tighten their grip over India even after conceding 190 runs first innings lead. Inspired by Ollie Pope’s masterclass innings , Debutant Tom Hartley on a low bounce pitch used conditions to perfection to grab 7 wickets in an innings and 9 wickets in the match in addition to 34 runs scored in the second innings and adding 80 runs with Pope to give England 1-0 lead as they now head to Vishakhapatnam for second test match .
Morning session : 25.1 overs 104 runs 4 wickets. Ollie Pope’s 196 sets India a target of 231
Ollie Pope fell agonizingly short of an incredible double century, but paved the way for England to set India a target of 231 with a little over five sessions to go in the Hyderabad Test. Pope’s effort – in the company of a free-spirited Tom Hartley – helped England post 420 runs – a total that looked improbable at one stage on Day 3 when they were five down for just 163 and still in arrears of India’s first-innings lead.
By Lunch on Day 4, however, they turned the tables through Pope’s efforts to keep themselves in contention for a favorable result in the opening Test of the series.
Jasprit Bumrah continued from where he left off on Day 3 as he got the old ball to reverse away from Rehan Ahmed and nicked him off. Hartley arrived next to pour cold water over India’s plans of wrapping up the tail as he forged a stubborn stand with Pope. As the lead went past 150, India delayed taking the new ball in the hope of making another breakthrough or two with the old one.
Even when Rohit Sharma eventually took it, in the 89th over, it didn’t yield different results as Hartley – who constantly counter-attacked against Ashwin – and Pope added a brisk, 65-ball stand worth 50 and brought up England’s lead of 200.If England’s proactive approach finding success wasn’t enough, India made matters worse for themselves with fielding lapses. While Pope was on 186, KL Rahul put down a straight forward catching chance that the England batter offered him at first slip off Mohammed Siraj.
The plan to pepper Hartley with short balls was also thwarted by the six foot four inches tall left-hander, as he pulled comfortably against Siraj. The extent of England’s command in the middle was perhaps encapsulated in the way the left-hander made the risky option of a pre-meditated reverse sweep against Ashwin seem run of the mill. Ashwin hit back though towards the end of the session by cleaning up the left-hander, but not before he added an extremely valuable 80-run stand for the eighth wicket with Pope.
From 419 for 8, Jadeja quickly made it 420 for 9 with the wicket of Mark Wood, bringing Jack Leach – with a swollen leg – out to the middle. Rohit Sharma immediately brought back Bumrah in a bid to wrap up the innings before the impending Lunch break. Pope lived by the sword and died by it, as an attempt to play the reverse scoop against Bumrah’s slower delivery led to his dismissal and the end of England’s innings.
Tea Session- 29 overs 95 runs 3 wickets . Tom Hartley makes India wobble as he clears Top order with 3 wickets at stroke of Tea giving England a sniff at victory.
After Ollie Pope’s 196 helped set India a target of 231, England spinners made life hard for the home side in an engrossing middle session on Day 4 in Hyderabad. Jack Leach bowled with a strapped left leg and Tom Hartley had a spring to his step after a lackluster start to life in Test cricket in the first innings. The tall left-arm spinner picked each of the three wickets to fall as India got to 95/3 at Tea.
It was Pope and Hartley’s combination with the bat that slowly but surely dragged the game away from India’s grasp in the morning session. They combined once again to rattle India early as a bowler-short leg/silly point fielder combination with the wickets of Yashaswi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill.
Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma made a cautious start to India’s chase while the visiting spinners got some variable bounce and appreciable turn off the surface. In the 12th over off Hartley, Jaiswal looked to change that narrative and take control of the proceedings as he went after the left-arm spinner.
He cut a short delivery past point, after which Hartley moved his lengths up the pitch. Three balls later, in anticipation of another full ball, Jaiswal gave the spinner the charge, only for him to pull his length back. Jaiswal went through with his big shot but didn’t middle it and Pope pouched a sharp take at short leg. Two balls later, Gill fell while prodding forward at a flighted delivery which went to Pope at silly point.
Rohit refused to let the England spinners dictate terms, and pulled a leaf out of Pope’s book by sweeping and reverse-sweeping at will. He picked up two successive fours with a reverse sweep off Leach in a brisk start to his knock. He however, was trapped leg before by a Hartley delivery that didn’t turn as much as he anticipated. The ball beat the inside edge of his bat and hit him on the front foot, prompting the umpire to side with the bowling side. Rohit pondered for a bit and risked a review, taking it back with him in the process.
India sent in the left-handed Axar Patel at No.5 to negate the spinners turning the ball away from the right-handers and it worked. Patel took on leggie Rehan Ahmed, driving two full deliveries, forcing him to change his lengths and then pulled a short one for another four in a 13-run over. Rahul meanwhile, brought out the sweep shot against Hartley. The duo took India to within 136 runs of the target at the end of the second session.
Post Tea Session 40.2 overs 107 runs 7 wickets . Inspired by Ollie Pope’s scintillating 196 runs , debut Spinner Tom Hartley takes 7 wickets as England packs a 28 runs punch to India taking 1-0 lead in the test series.
Life post the Tea break began in circumspect fashion for India as they lost the two batters from the previous session very early. Axar Patel, who grew into the game towards the end of the middle phase, fell first off a tame caught and bowled dismissal, giving Tom Hartley his fourth wicket. Joe Root then trapped KL Rahul leg before off a ball that straightened from round the stumps.
India’s attempt to slowly recover via Ravindra Jadeja and Shreyas Iyer was thwarted by a moment of brilliance from Ben Stokes when the former pushed a full toss from Root towards mid-on and dashed off for a quick single. The Indian batter was beaten by Stokes’s incredible effort that saw him dive to collect the ball, release it quickly with an underarm throw and hit the stumps directly.
India lost their fourth wicket of the session for the addition of just 24 runs since Tea when Jack Leach got Iyer to prod at a full ball angled into him and nick it to Root at first slip. From 119 for 7, Ashwin and Bharat arrested India’s freefall. The two navigated past the tough early stages when England played with a spring in their step and the real belief of taking a 1-0 lead in the series. However, all they could do was delay the eventuality.
England were closing in on their remarkable victory early in the final session, before the eighth-wicket pair of R Ashwin and KS Bharat showed that there was more in this exceptional Test to ebb and flow. Tom Hartley however, stood tall in the dying moments of the final session to pull the game to England’s corner, finishing with a seven-wicket haul. He first broke the Ashwin-Bharat stand that lasted 21.4 overs and threatened to take the game away from the visitors, when he cleaned up Bharat.
Ben Stokes triggered the option of extending play by half-an-hour in search of the win. Straightaway, Hartley got his sixth when Ashwin gave him the charge and missed with a wild swing to get out stumped. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj lived dangerously, like a typical final-wicket pair would, and came agonizingly close to dragging the game to the final day.
Hartley once again arrived – this time in the final over of the day – to lure Siraj into stepping out and getting stumped. With that, Hartley capped off his dream debut with figures 7 for 62 and gave England a 28-run victory and 1-0 lead over India leading to Vishakhapatnam with their dreams to beat India in a series in India after 2012 alive and intact.
Captains view and Road Ahead.
Losing captain Rohit Sharma said :
“Cricket is played over four days, so it’s hard to pinpoint where it went wrong. Having got a lead of 190, we thought we were very much in the game. Exceptional batting, one of the best that I have seen in Indian conditions by an overseas batter, Ollie Pope played a brilliant knock. I thought 230 was gettable, there wasn’t too much in the pitch. We didn’t bat well enough to get to the score. I went and checked where we bowled, we bowled in the right areas,”
“When you finish the day, you analyze what went well and what didn’t go well. The bowlers executed the plans really well, but you got to take your hat off and say well played to Pope. That was some serious knock. Hard to look at one or two things. Overall, we failed as a team. After the first innings of their batting and our batting, I thought we were very much in the game. We didn’t bat well enough to get to that score. I wanted them (Siraj and Bumrah) to take the game to the fifth day. 20-30 runs, anything is possible,”
“The lower order actually fought really well there and showed the top-order that you need to fight it out. You need to show character, you need to be brave enough, which I thought we weren’t. We wanted to take some chances, we didn’t take chances with the bat. But that can happen. It’s the first game of the series, I hope the guys can learn from that,”
Winning captain Ben Stokes said
“Since I have taken the captaincy on, we have had a lot of fantastic moments as a team. We’ve got a lot of great victories, we’ve been part of some amazing games. Where we are and who were playing against, this victory is probably, 100% definitely, our greatest triumph. It’s my first time coming out here being a captain. I am a great observer of the game. I learned a lot from our first innings in the field,”
“I watched how Indian spinners operated, how Rohit set the field and tried to take a lot of that into our innings. Absolutely thrilled for everyone. Tom Hartley on debut getting nine wickets, Ollie Pope coming back after his shoulder surgery, incredible effort from everyone. Tom came into the squad for the first time. A lot of confidence given to him. I was willing to give him longer spells regardless of what happened because I knew I had to turn back to him at some point,”
“We completely back people who we have been selected. I have been lucky enough to play a lot of Test matches in the subcontinent. Same Joe Root, I have seen some pretty special innings from him. But the situation we found ourselves in, coming in at No. 3, the shots he played, 190 on such a difficult wicket, he was able to manipulate the field with sweep shots and reverse-sweeps, the way he was able to rotate the strike, I think that’s the greatest innings that’s ever been played in subcontinent by an English batsman,”
“If you lose, you wake up in the morning, you’re still having a good crack at life, still breathing, got another four games after this. I don’t fear failure, all I want to do is try and encourage whoever finds themselves lucky enough to be in this squad,”
Player of the match for scintillating 196 runs knock Ollie Pope said:
“100 percent (best knock). Coming here to India, toughest place for a batter, to start the series like this, heads and shoulders above the other four (hundreds). I got lucky there in the second innings. I played and missed a few. I was focused on covering the inside edge,”
“I maintained that mindset and wanted to be positive with my sweep and reverse sweep. I have changed my technique slightly for this series. I have had a long time to prepare for this series. Made some adjustments, worked hard on my game. The family have had early starts throughout the game, they can finally get some sleep, will be nice catching up,”
In further vindication of England’s alternative (and aggressive) approach to Test cricket, Ben Stokes’s side secured a famous victory over India in Hyderabad on Sunday. England did so by overturning a first-innings deficit of 190 runs – second on the list of biggest deficits overturned to win a Test in India, behind India’s famous win over Australia at Eden Gardens in 2001. That this was India’s fourth defeat in 47 home Tests in 12 years establishes the extent of England’s achievement in the series opener.
All the talk leading into the series was about how Bazball will fare against the spinners. They’ve certainly won the first round. There was a vast difference in terms of experience between the two teams in the spin department. Things got worse for the visitors with Jack Leach having a niggle for most parts of the Test. But England found a way to come out on top. Stokes’s crucial runs with the lower-order, Root’s four-fer, Pope’s incredible ton … England, however, will be most pleased with Hartley’s performance.
He was taken to the cleaners by Jaiswal in his opening spell on day one but the debutant bowled beautifully today to pick seven wickets in an innings. It’ll be interesting to see how India react after this loss. While most of their batters got out playing the big shots in the first essay, they floundered against spin while being defensive today.
Their opponents have a clear plan and mindset, especially with the bat. It’s time to bring the curtains down on this brilliant Test match. It’s England 1 India 0. Four more to go with the next one commencing on Friday 02nd February 2024 at Visakhapatnam and India will hope to make a comeback before Virat Kohli’s return to squad ahead of 3rd test match of this intriguing series which has set adrenaline of all the viewers to the highest point after enthralling 1st Test at Hyderabad.