Feeble Indian batting falters again as Brook runs riot
India – 158/7 (Shreyas Iyer 80 (49 balls), Jofra Archer 20/2, Josh Tongue 36/2) lost against England – 159/1 in 13.5 overs (Harry Brook 79 (35 balls), Phil Salt 59 (42 balls), Arshdeep Singh 41/1)
England win by 9 wickets – Man of the Match – Harry Brook
Another day and another limp display by the Indians in the 3rd T20 between India and England in Bristol saw them trailing 3-0 in the series, with one match still to go. Winning his sixth consecutive toss, captain Shreyas Iyer chose to bat first. The English bowlers had their plans spot on, and from the look of things, the Indian batsmen did not. Predictably, they got their share of short, on-the-body deliveries, and once the ball became softer, use the variations to devastating effect. The previous day’s collapse lingering at the back of their minds, the Indians played it safe, but could not accelerate when the time came.
Chasing an underwhelming total, Harry Brook showed them how it is done as he dismantled the Indian attack and stayed till the end to see England romp home to victory. Dominating and aggressive, he did not let the spinners settle. This was a walloping of the highest order and would have been completely demoralising for the Indian team. Winless in their last 6 matches, the fight has been gradually fading as the tour progresses. What had initially appeared like a matter of attitude is now seen more as a technical deficiency, both while batting and bowling.
It was evident right away that the English fast bowlers would bowl short and fast to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Abhishek Sharma. While Archer was right on the money from the first over, Tongue wasn’t so accurate and was taken for 15 runs in his first over. The bounce on these English pitches is slightly more than that in India, and the grounds are noticeably larger than those one gets to see during the IPL. The combination of these two factors accounted for the first three wickets.
Having played the last few weeks under such conditions, the Indian batsmen again failed to adjust their game accordingly. The first three batsmen all fell mistiming the ball to the pull shot. Almost inevitably, Sooryavanshi pulled a hard length delivery from Archer straight to mid-on. This has been a rude awakening for the young batsman, and if he manages to learn all the right lessons from this, it will keep him in good stead in the future. A cross-batted swipe from Ishan Kishan was top-edged to short third man to give Tongue his first wicket.
Abhishek had been batting with much restraint and had played a silken cover drive off Will Jacks to show that he was not all about power. A long hop from Adil Rashid saw him lose that composure as he tried to clobber it to the stands, but only managed to sky it high for the bowler to complete the catch. Shreyas tried to stabilise the innings with a good-looking drive for a boundary off Sam Curran and then an upper cut for six, using the pace of Archer. But looking at the brittleness of the Indian batting, he abstained from taking too many risks.
Dube was promoted up the order to attack the spinners, but Brook brought in the pacers to counter that move. Content with singles, the halfway score was 71/3, and some serious acceleration was required. By the time the spinners came back, the innings had lost momentum, and it was a struggle to get it back on track. Will Jacks and Sam Curran were magnificent with the ball and completely choked the runs.
Adjusting his length and varying his pace, Will Jacks managed to put a stranglehold on both batsmen. For the Indian team, almost obsessed with matchups, this would have been a wake-up call. While matchups do matter, quality takes precedence. Sam Curran, a wonderful foil to the pace of Archer and Tongue, used his full repertoire to flummox the batsmen as they struggled to time the ball. Bowling exactly to his field, it was a masterclass of defensive bowling.
Going increasingly frustrated against Jacks, Dube timed one well to wide long on, where Banton fielded spectacularly to stop the boundary and keep it to two. The next ball was bowled shorter and slower, and a cross-batted slog was caught by Banton at long on, who deserved the wicket as much as the bowler for the buildup of pressure that led to the shot. In a tour where the Indian fielding has fallen apart, these bits of athleticism from the English fielders made a huge difference.
At 103/4 in 14 overs, it was up to Shreyas to propel the innings. He targeted Rashid, pulling another half tracker for a six over long leg. With that shot, he reached 50 in 33 balls. Tilak Varma, woefully out of form, came and went back soon. The 18th over from Rashid was another opportunity, and Shreyas seized it with both hands. Two massive straight sixes and a cut shot for a boundary brought the Indian score to 150.
Looking to launch in the last two overs of the innings, Archer and Curran pulled things back for England with a combination of accurate yorkers and slower deliveries as they conceded only a further 8 runs. Archer even managed to bring out his inner Messi with a right-footed tap-in as he ran out Axar in the last ball of the innings.
A score of 158/7 was definitely under par, but the Indian bowlers could have been expected to make a match of it if they could exploit the grip and bounce of the wicket. Then the England innings commenced, and all that notion flew out of the window.
Admittedly, the Indian bowlers started well. A couple of tight overs brought a wicket as Jos Buttler edged Arshdeep back to the keeper. Phil Salt, playing an innings not very dissimilar to the one he played in the previous match, was scoreless after 9 balls. Despite being the highest scorer then, he appeared to be in woeful form. And then it all started to go pear-shaped for India.
Prince Yadav had bowled two perfectly good balls when he bowled a slow and wide one. It sat on the pitch expecting to be hit, and Salt obliged with a boundary slapped towards cover. To put the cherry on top, it was also a no-ball. Amusingly, the free hit was a searing yorker on middle stump that clean bowled Salt, but the next ball was a lucky edge that got him a four anyway. A couple of lucky breaks, and Salt was on his way. Then a straight drive for another boundary meant that 15 runs were scored off that over.
India’s recurring tendency to start by bowling slower ones with the new ball and powerplay restrictions has often gotten them in trouble on this tour and needs looking into.
India wasn’t done offering gifts to Salt yet. As if willing him on, Prasidh Krishna bowled one short outside off with no third man fielder, and Salt again accepted gleefully with a boundary. The obligatory no-ball followed, and by the end of the over, an identical 15 runs had been scored for the second over running, and Salt had scored 26 in the last 10 balls he faced.
Harry Brook needed no such presents. Batting with intent, he scooped the second ball from Arshdeep over the fine leg boundary for six. A few balls later, a similar shot off Prince Yadav fetched him a boundary. The Indian batsmen, for all their struggles, never attempted such a shot during the entire innings. With England at 62/1 in the powerplay, India had some catching up to do.
Washington had hardly bowled in this tour, and Brook immediately put him to the sword. Washington bowled flat, and with no variation on trajectory and with Brook in such an aggressive mood, there was no hiding. A straight boundary over the bowler’s head was followed by a half tracker, which was crunched over the deep midwicket boundary for a six. A wide delivery followed and was lofted towards the extra cover boundary for four. Bowling round the wicket did not help much as Brook dispatched it to the extra cover boundary again. 19 runs in the over brought the required rate down to 6.
With the spinners low on confidence, Axar was the next to suffer the following over as Salt and Brook combined to score 18 off it, with Brook hitting a towering six well over the sightscreen to bring his half-century in 21 balls. That was it for the spinners for the day. Not that it would have made any difference to the result, Shreyas Iyer capped off another miserable day for the Indian team on the field as he missed a direct hit to the stumps that would have dismissed Brook.
With the win secured, Brook began grandstanding as he wristily flicked a length delivery from Arshdeep straight over long on for a six. His 79 in 35 balls won the Player of the Match award, as he demolished the Indian attack on a pitch that may not have been as easy as he showed it to be. Salt played a good supporting hand as England won by 9 wickets.
With the departure of Suryakumar Yadav from the Indian team, there is an urgent need for batsmen who can play unorthodox and improvised shots. Their inability to read the conditions correctly has been perplexing, as has been the batsmen’s failure to adjust to the situations. The bowlers, after going for runs on flat pitches during the IPL, looked clueless on pitches that have something to offer. The team, which not too long ago was considered to be among the better fielding sides in the world, has been getting worse by the day.
A peculiar aspect of the Indian team selection was that despite the shambolic batting performance of the last match, there was no change in the top order. It gives the impression that the team management is dead-set on disproving the criticism and doubling down on their approach. It also meant that all the batsmen in the lineup were affected by the previous day’s mishap, which would explain their timid approach while batting first. It is not a very healthy approach to have. With the series lost, a thorough review is required to get to the root of the problem.