England’s legendary fast bowler James Anderson sparked a spectacular collapse in the Indian ranks which culminated with the visiting team being bowled out for an embarrassing 78 on the opening day of the third Test being played at Headingley in Leeds. Not long ago, on their previous overseas Test assignment, India were shot out for 36 at the Adelaide Oval.
By the end of the day, England were 42 runs ahead without any loss as their newest opening pair in Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed brought up their respective unbeaten half-centuries to rub further salt in the Indian wounds.
That England were a considerable margin ahead of India’s minuscule first innings total would continue to haunt the visitors for the remainder of the match, and perhaps for the rest of the series, as the home team reached 120/0 in 42 overs. The Indian innings, for that matter, had lasted for only 40.4 overs.
It all began with Anderson changing his tactics against the Indians — making them play more at the ball than what he had so far in the series in the first two matches. Anderson sprayed the vulnerable and fallible Indian batting attack with plenty of deliveries coming in to the batsmen, something that was forcing them to put the bat on the ball more often than not.
With Anderson shutting out India’s tactics of leaving plenty of deliveries, he got instant success in the fourth ball of the match when KL Rahul (0) went for a drive but ended up edging behind to England wicketkeeper Jos Buttler, who finished with five catches for himself in the innings.
The next to fall was Cheteshwar Pujara (1), who was caught behind by the England wicket-keeper after the Indian batsman went fishing outside his off stump and ended up edging the ball.
But perhaps the biggest victory and joy for Anderson and company came in the form of the wicket of India captain Virat Kohli, who has been horribly struggling for big runs for about a couple of years now. After leaving plenty of deliveries outside off that were meant to probe his technique and temperament, Kohli too edged one behind off Anderson to be dismissed for 7 from 17 balls.
India’s embattled vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, who had produced a fighting half-century in the second Test at Lord’s, tried weathering the storm in the company of Rohit as the two produced the highest contributions for India in their innings with 18 and 19 runs, respectively. England conceded 16 extras which was the third highest contributing factor in the Indian innings.
Rahane got three boundaries to make 18 from 54 balls but he was dismissed right at the stroke of lunch, this time Ollie Robinson producing a wicket. Buttler did the rest to take a catch as India were left tottering at 56/4 at lunch.
Robinson returned on the other side of the break to remove the dangerous Rishabh Pant out of the equation once again, and Sam Curran produced an outstanding yorker to surprise Ravindra Jadeja — India’s last legitimate hope of a fightback with the bat — to leave them reeling at 67/6.
Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah had done extremely well in the second innings at Lord’s to set up a Test victory for India, but both these batsmen had a forgettable time on Wednesday. Shami was snaffled in the slip cordon by Burns for a first ball duck off Craig Overton — a fate that was similar to Bumrah, who was trapped leg-before by Curran.
Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Siraj did well to take India’s total to 78 before the former was dismissed by Overton, who was at one stage on a hat-trick chance.
England bowlers produced magnificent numbers on Wednesday at Headingley, starting with Anderson, who returned with 8-5-6-3. Robinson produced 10-3-16-2, Curran produced 10-2-27-2 and Overton returned with perhaps the second best figures with 10.4-5-14-3. Moeen Ali bowled two wicketless overs.
While the ball did move a lot for England, the same could not be said for the Indians who tried everything in their books to break the newest England opening pair, which kept the struggling hosts unscathed at the close of play.
Burns struck five boundaries and a six to make 52 not out from 125 balls, whereas Hameed was rock-solid in his defence to make 60 not out from 130 balls with the help of 11 boundaries. The right-handed England opener was given a lifeline towards the end of the day when an edge off his bat passed under Rohit’s hand in the slip cordon, as Hameed brought up his half-century on the comeback to the English team.
With their backs firmly pressed against the wall at the end of the first day, the only way India can make a comeback into this contest is by bowling England out for a cheap total and not allowing far too many runs as first-innings lead.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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