India misplaced their seventh match of their final 10 Exams. In Leeds, India went down by 5 wickets, regardless of 5 centuries handy England a 1-0 lead within the five-match collection.
Catches win you matches. And India Cricket Team might have missed that lesson. As many as eight catches were dropped, a wicket was missed on a no-ball and numerous half-chances went down in the IND vs ENG 1st Test at Headingley. As a result, India ended up losing a Test match, despite five centuries from four batters. There was another part to India’s defeat. Out of India’s 835 runs in the Test match, the lower order contributed just 43 runs. India’s new Test captain, Shubman Gill, was honest in his assessment of the loss, blaming poor catching and lack of contribution from the lower order for the defeat.
“I think it was a brilliant Test match. We had our chances. But we dropped catches and our lower-order didn’t contribute enough. Just didn’t go our way in this match. That was something we spoke about. It (collapse) happened so quickly. It could be one of those things we have to rectify in the upcoming matches. Definitely, chances don’t come easy on wickets like these. It’s a young team, learning one and hopefully we will be able to improve on those aspects,” Shubman Gill said at the post-match presentation.
8 dropped catches
What hurt India the most was the dropped catches. There were six dropped catches in the first innings and two in the second. Yashasvi Jaiswal dropped four of them. Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant, Sai Sudharsan, and Jasprit Bumrah dropped one each. Bumrah was the victim on five occasions, including a missed opportunity on his own bowling. The results were catastrophic.
- Ben Duckett survived twice (on 11) in the first innings and scored 62
- Ollie Pope survived once on 60 and scored a century in the first innings
- Harry Brook survived twice (on 0 and 82) and scored 99
- Jamie Smith scored 40 after surviving once on 19
- Ben Duckett again got a lifeline in the 2nd innings on 97 and scored 149
- Zak Crawley scored 65 after Bumrah dropped him in his follow-through on 38
While Bumrah defended Jaiswal and the missed chances, it ultimately made the difference. Add almost a dozen half-chances, and the reason for India’s defeat would be clear.
“The first session we were quite spot on, didn’t give away many runs. It’s hard to stop the runs once the ball softens. Unfortunately, some edges didn’t go our way. They took their chances after the ball got old. That happens in a game of cricket. You expect that everything won’t go your way,” Shubman Gill said after the match.
Did India have a lower order?
To credit India’s batting, they did pretty well. Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill and KL Rahul scored a century each while Rishabh Pant slammed tons in both innings. Thanks to them, India scored 471 in the first innings and 364 in the second. But only those four contributed 691 runs out of 786 runs, excluding 49 extras.
Seven others combined could only manage a total of 105 runs. Karun Nair who returned to Test cricket after seven years scored 0 and 20. Sai Sudharsan scored 0 and 30 on debut. Ravindra Jadeja scored 11 and 25. India’s entire lower order combined scored just 43 runs, including 36 runs from Jadeja.
As a result, India went from 430/3 to 471 all out in the first innings, losing seven wickets for 41 runs. In the second innings, India suffered another collapse. From 333/4, India were bowled out for 364, losing six wickets for 31 runs. That did not allow India to set a 400+ target for England. Add poor catching and India lost the Test at Headingley.
“Yesterday we were thinking around 430-odd and declare. Unfortunately, we didn’t score runs at the end, which always makes it difficult. We spoke about the first-innings collapse. It happens. We have to rectify that going forward,” Gill admitted.
Editor’s Pick
High Tales
