WI vs ENG | 1st Test | Gritty West Indies hold on to eke out draw

Kingshuk Kusari

The first Test match between West Indies and England ended in an exciting draw. The final day turned out to be one of the boldest attempts from England to force out a result in what initially looked like a dead Test match on Day 4. 

England were put on top with twin centuries from Zack Crawley and Joe Root, which marked their first instance in a long long time when three of their batters scored individual tons in a single Test match. Root and Crawley played an intent filled innings where they scored at a brisk pace. Sharing a massive 201 stand off 350 balls, before Crawley was undone by a yorker from Jason Holder.

With Crawley falling at 225/2, England put more pressure on the host team scoring rapid runs in their third wicket partnership of 70 off 68 balls and made their intentions very very clear.

Joe Root - who has been criticised more often than not for being defensive, turned over a new leaf being ultra attacking. He was ably helped by Dan Lawrence who played a cameo of 37 off 36 balls hitting four boundaries and one six.

Lawrence fell on 295 and Joe Root soon followed him at 310. England were bold with their declaration at 349/6 setting a target of 286 runs in the final day, one that Windies could attempt to chase in a minimum of 71 overs.

This was brave considering England did not have the services of their fastest bowler Mark Wood, who consistently troubled the opposition batters with his searing 145k deliveries. Wood had complained of pain in his elbow and it is not yet known if he will be able to further participate in the remaining matches or not.

With that in mind, England came to attack in the final innings of the game centred around the discipline of Jack Leach. With close in fielders watching the ball carefully, Windies had one goal in the game, that was to survive. And they did well. Once again, the opening pair added 59 runs in the game and negotiated a long phase of 25 overs. And just like it happened in the first innings, the break in partnership paved the way for a Windies collapse threatening a loss late in the Test match.

Two quick wickets of captain Kraigg Brathwaite and John Campbell in a space of two overs meant Windies were shaken. First it was the captain that got surprised by the bounce on a shortish delivery and ended up getting caught in front. And then it was an unnecessary aggression from John Campbell who opted to play the slog sweep against Jack Leach giving an easy chance to Craig Overton at mid on.

Leach kept persisting with two more wickets of Shamarh Brooks and Jermaine Blackwood and Windies, from 59/0 were 67/4 inside a space of 10 overs.

However, scenes repeated from the first innings, and Nkrumah Bonner and Jason Holder held the innings together and negotiated 214 balls together to see Windies through.

Despite a draw, there are lots of positives to be taken for England from the first Test match as they are trying to force themselves into a new era of Test cricket. At the moment, Zack Crawley has looked promising to take over the opening duties, while Jonny Bairstow has paid back for the trust that has been shown to him. Root seems to be attacking more as a captain, and the raw pace of Wood is looking like the x-factor they need in the absence of Jofra Archer.

England would like to better their opening bowling, where Chris Woakes is yet to prove himself. One of the best new ball bowlers in the world in white-ball format has struggled to find rhythm throughout the Test match and could do with better support from his compatriots.

The second Test match will now move to Barbados, known for its feisty wickets and England will hope that come 16 March, they use the first Test’s learnings to be best effect.

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PAK vs AUS | 2nd Test | Visitors rage ahead with Usman Khawaja century

Australia have raged forward in the first innings and are on course to set up a big total on Day 2 of the second Test match at Karachi on Sunday, 13 March. Scoring at a steady rate, Australia were 293/3 after 100 overs with centurion Usman Khawaja and nightwatchman Nathan Lyon on the pitch. Day 1 was headlined by Khawaja’s history-making innings, where the Pakistan-born scored his first Test century in his country of birth. Besides Khawaja, Steve Smith looked threatening on the day and fell after scoring 72 runs off 214 balls on another batting pitch. Pakistan barely looked threatening on Day 1 and had to resort to negative tactics to check the runflow. They bowled leg stump lines and tried to get Smith out like they did in the last match, but it did not pan out. A little reprieve arrived late in the final session of the game when Smith poked Hasan Ali outside off stump and pacer Faheem Ashraf flung himself to his left to grab the ball out of thin air. Barring those two, David Warner had a good start after negotiating the first 5 overs of swing from Shaheen Shah Afridi and went on to make 36 off 48 balls. He was troubled on both edges of his bat in the first few overs, struggling to judge balls bowled to him from around the wicket by the right handers. He ended up poking a ball back to the keeper in the corridor of uncertainty and became the first wicket to fall on Day 1. But the day was all about the grit of Khawaja who scored 97 runs in the first Test match before getting out. This time around, things got really tentative in the 90s for the left hander but he managed to place spinner Sajid Khan for a single through the off side to complete his century. Khawaja has been in exceptional form since making a comeback into Test cricket and has scored three centuries already since his return in the Ashes. The second day looks like another long one with the pitch offering little to no help for the bowlers. Australia will look to pile on runs and play throughout Day 2 and hope that the pitch breaks when they come out to bowl. Australia are playing two spinners in Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Swepson, hoping that the wicket will support spin in the last three days.

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IND vs SL | 16 wickets fall on Day 1 on a telling opener in 2nd Test at Bangalore

The Bangalore crowd were welcomed with 16 wickets in the return of Test cricket to Bangalore on Day 1 of the second Test match of Sri Lanka’s tour to India. In an unceremonious first day of second Test, India maintained control owing to their bowling department and more importantly Shreyas Iyer who saw India through a tough day in Bangalore. After choosing to bat first, India were served up a rude reality with the pitching behaving inconsistently after the 10 over mark. It’s not like India did exceptionally well before that though. A bizarre incident started off their day in the most unlikely of fashions. Mayank Agarwal, was caught plumb in front of the wickets but the decision did not go towards Sri Lanka’s way despite appealing with all their heart. To add insult to injury on their vociferous appeal, the delivery was called a no ball. And then came the most bizzare of incidents that we have seen in Test cricket. Mayank ran forward after the ball hit him while the umpire gave him a not out; an attempt at short cover was always going to be difficult and the reluctance from Rohit Sharma at the non strikers’ end did not help. Mayank was past halfway when Rohit Sharma decided to call a stern no, and the recently crowned Punjab Kings captain was left nowhere to go. Mayank fell to a simple runout and that marked the end of the Indian partnership in the very second over. India did not falter right away after Mayank’s wicket, but the introduction of spin mixed with the horrific nature of the wicket led to one more wicket in the next 10 overs. Rohit Sharma edged a ball back to the slip cordon and marked the end of the Indian captain. Virat Kohli started a good partnership with number three Hanuma Vihari but both were undone by the inconsistency with the bounce in the wicket. While Hanuma got undone by extra bounce on a turning delivery and ended up inducing an edge to the slip while Virat Kohli got caught plumb in front against a delivery that kept very very low. Understanding that there was no way to survive this wicket if one were to defend through the game, new batting pair in the middle Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer took the attack to the opposition and served up a huge challenge ahead of the them - either get us out or lose the game in the first innings itself. At that moment, Sri Lanka and the fans watching the game knew that to chase anything above 180-200 was going to be tough on this wicket. They were successful in their attempt to remove Rishabh for 39 off 26, but Shreyas Iyer was different gravy on the day. Not only did he took India to a safe score of 252, his 92 off 98 balls was so dominating that Sri Lanka looked at a loss of ideas despite the ball starting to turn square from session 2. Iyer was the last wicket to fall on the day against a Jayawickrama square turner from over the wicket that ended up stumping him. He deserved a century, but his 92 was no less than a storm that virtually took Sri Lanka out of the game. Studded with four sixes and 10 boundaries, the innings looked more like a T20 outing rather than a Test one. Coming into bowl, India did not need there spinners, given the pace duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami breathed fire under the lights. With the ball doing much more in the final session than it did in the afternoon, Bumrah swung it both ways to dismiss Kusal Mendis and Lahiru Thirimanne inside the first 5 overs, while Shami ripped into captain Dimuth Karunaratne. With the top order cleaned up, Sri Lanka were in deep trouble even before the spin attack came in, and eventually ended up losing 6 wickets at the end of day’s play. Only veteran Angelo Mathews (42 off 85) was able to score some runs, but the rest of them failed miserably to put Sri Lanka into a stutter of 86/6 at the end of 30 overs. A total of 16 wickets fell on the day, definitely not a good advertisement for Test cricket with batsmen finding it difficult to judge as to what the pitch would do from which spot. Nobody looked assured, and if things go the same way, nobody will in the course of this Test match. All things point to a two and a half day finish, with India as the overwhelming favourites to win the encounter.