NICK FRIEND looks back on the major moments from the first day of the third Test at Headingley, where England dominated India
Last week, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami were the thorns in England’s side. As the wheels gradually came off at Lord’s, the pair added 89 unbroken runs in 120 balls.
Joe Root admitted afterwards that he lost control as captain. James Anderson acknowledged that the battle became too emotional. Chris Silverwood confessed that his charges should have gone about their work differently. In the space of a single session, a game that England had done so well to reel in had slipped from their grasp – and then some.
They were hostile and bowled almost exclusively short, seeking retribution for a spell earlier in the match bowled at Anderson. The plan went awry and, almost as quickly as the hosts had taken a position of supremacy for the first time in the series, they had relinquished it, with fielders at fly slip and deep point. What we witnessed was the plot being lost in front of our eyes.
But fast-forward a week, and this strange old game was doing its thing once more.
Bumrah and Shami, scourges of England a matter of days earlier, lasted two balls between them. Both could be excused for thinking they would be required so soon after opting to bat in the Headingley sun. In each case, they were the second wicket to fall in successive deliveries, though in neither scenario was either Sam Curran or Craig Overton able to complete the hat-trick.
Those wickets were the centre-points of a spell that saw India lose 7 for 22.
Rohit Sharma's dismissal opened the floodgates
On the back of a king pair and figures of 1 for 114 at Lord’s, this was the day that Sam Curran needed. England could easily have picked Craig Overton at his expense and drafted in Saqib Mahmood’s pace for Mark Wood. But England are reticent to dispense with Curran, his left-handedness and his feted ability to turn nothing into something.
Here, he deserved his wickets before they came: Rohit Sharma was beaten frequently on his outside edge by the natural variation of his angle across them.
England are not always so clinical, India rarely this generous
Eventually, he trapped Ravindra Jadeja on the toe with a yorker to give England their eighth wicket and had Bumrah so palpably lbw to the next ball that after initially reviewing the decision, the seamer took a brief look at the big screen and began his long walk-off before ball-tracking had loaded.
Mohammed Siraj survived the hat-trick ball, just as Ishant had overcome Overton’s. The Somerset man had dismissed Rohit, flapping a pull shot to mid-on, before Shami edged to Rory Burns at third slip one ball later. Given the events of last week – and the need for a positive start here, having been invited to field first – England could hardly contain their joy.
Ishant Sharma’s Wednesday could only have gone worse if he had been dismissed by Overton’s hat-trick ball. He managed to jam down his bat on that occasion.
Otherwise, however, he had a shocker. When India came out afterwards, with 78 runs on the board and a fast start with the ball an absolute necessity against England’s fragile top order, he delivered a nine-ball over, featuring a wide and two no-balls.
He appeared to struggle with his run-up initially and, after returning from the opposite end, he dived over the top of a drive from Rory Burns at mid-off.
In a terrific seam attack, he is a terrific operator. This, though, was one to forget.
India endured their worst day of the series
This was England’s first hundred-run opening partnership in 26 innings and only the second time since 2016 that both openers have passed fifty in the same innings, a pair of statistics that highlight quite how difficult Joe Root’s side have found it to score regular runs at the top of the order in recent times.
And there can have been few first-wicket stands quite as serene as this one in those timeframes. Haseeb Hameed was dropped on 46 by Rohit Sharma – a difficult chance at second slip that flew past him almost before he could react, while Shami appealed optimistically in the day’s dying embers for an lbw against Rory Burns – a shout that drew little support even from Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant behind the stumps.
Otherwise, Hameed and Burns were fluent and extremely watchable. Hameed’s backfoot punch was a thing of beauty, only bettered by a delicious guide to the third man boundary as the evening drew in – a stroke that displayed a man at total ease. He struck 10 fours in all, before the close of play interrupted his flow; with the sixth, as CricViz pointed out, he surpassed Dom Sibley’s tally for the series, albeit in 132 fewer deliveries.
And without being too critical of Sibley, who was championed at times by England’s management for doing the legwork asked of him, the difference in tempo was impossible to ignore, with runs flowing all around the ground.
England have had six 100+ first-wicket stands in the last five years.
— The Cricketer (@TheCricketerMag) August 25, 2021
Haseeb Hameed features in two of those, despite only opening on six occasions in that time.#ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/YUzBRXTLCL
England can scarcely have enjoyed a better day than this in the recent past: Melbourne and Trent Bridge – both against Australia – stand out as obvious candidates, but this must rank among those.
Having lost the toss – though both Craig Overton and James Anderson suggested they might have bowled in any case – India were four wickets down at lunch, with England batting by the time tea came about.
You would have found long odds at 11am on that eventuality, and even longer on Burns and Hameed having manufactured the biggest partnership of the day by the close. There were several key moments along the way, most of which are documented above, but the passage of play that saw Pant edge behind to Jos Buttler for his fifth catch of the day and Rohit Sharma inexplicably flap an Overton bouncer to mid-on was the difference between any kind of recovery and what ultimately transpired.
India lost four wickets in six balls while on 67 – Rohit was the first of those, while there were only two partnerships in the visitors’ innings greater than the 11-run stand put together by Ishant and Siraj.
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