by John Wisden
Anjali Doshi is a columnist for Wisden India and a former cricket editor with the Indian TV channel NDTV 24x7.
INDIA v ENGLAND
First Test Match
DEAN WILSON
At Ahmedabad, November 15–19, 2012. India won by nine wickets. Toss: India. Test debut: N. R. D. Compton.
Anything feels possible on the first morning of a Test. Start well, and the game can unroll like a red carpet at a VIP function. Start badly, and you won’t get past the bouncer on the door. At the Sardar Patel Stadium, India had a blast, while England’s name was not even on the guest list. India’s nine-wicket win did not flatter them, and left England pondering whether their repeated claims to have improved in Asian conditions now bordered on the delusional. Cook, in his first Test as permanent captain, was immense – but only after his team had followed on, 330 behind, and India had found a player apparently capable of matching the sangfroid of the retired Rahul Dravid at No. 3. While Pujara was busy scoring 247 runs without being dismissed – 41 of them as opener in the second innings after Gambhir had returned home to Delhi following the death of his grandmother – the debate about a fading batting line-up seemed totally irrelevant.
Not for the first time in 2012, England’s batsmen were flummoxed by quality spin, the absence of which from their three warm-up games had lent those matches an unreal air. To make matters worse, they picked the wrong side, omitting Monty Panesar and opting instead for a three-pronged seam attack that was badly shown up by the home pair of Yadav and Zaheer Khan. Swann admitted the pitch had been even slower and lower than England had feared, though he fought hard, taking six of the nine Indian wickets to fall and moving past Jim Laker (193) as the most prolific English Test off-spinner of all time. But 13 in the match for Ashwin and Ojha, India’s slow bowlers, told its own tale.
From the moment Cook lost the toss, England were up against it. More specifically on the opening day, they were up against Sehwag, who hurried India to 120 without loss at lunch and, by the 40th over, had completed his 23rd Test century – though only his second against England – from just 90 balls. It had been two years since his previous hundred, but this was worth the wait, full of languid square-drives and matter-of-fact lofts down the ground. When Sehwag was second out for a run-a-ball 117, missing a mow at Swann, India already had 224, and England – who had been slow to respond to his steers to the unguarded third-man region – were lamenting the absence of Steven Finn, who had failed to recover from a thigh injury. Yet their attack of Anderson, Broad, Bresnan and Swann had been at the heart of the 4–0 win over these opponents in 2011. That, though, had been at home. This was Ahmedabad, the city where Gandhi had begun his salt march, and England – as if in homage – were looking distinctly non-aggressive.
Tendulkar came and went quickly, carelessly swatting Swann to deep midwicket, where Patel seemed to be waiting for the miscue, but that merely focused the attention on Pujara, who responded with the kind of remorseless concentration that had once brought him three triple-centuries in all cricket in the space of a month. Fortunate to get away with a leading edge on eight off Bresnan as Anderson misjudged the flight at mid-on, Pujara – from nearby Rajkot – gave his fellow Gujaratis plenty to cheer with an unbeaten double-hundred of stylistic and technical brilliance. In all, he thwarted England for a shade over eight and a half hours, and allowed Yuvraj Singh – returning to Test cricket for the first time in a year, after a battle with cancer – the freedom to settle in. They added 130 for India’s fifth wicket.
England’s reply to 521 for eight began badly. The debutant Nick Compton crawled to nine before he was gated by a delicious off-break from Ashwin, who thus reached 50 Test wickets in his ninth match, quicker than any other Indian (Anil Kumble got there in ten). With 20 minutes of the second evening still to play, Anderson emerged as nightwatchman, but fell almost immediately to Ojha. And when Ashwin removed Trott, caught at short leg, the crumble was on. It continued next morning. In his first international match since reintegration, Pietersen got into a tangle against Ojha, bowled middle stump as his bat came across the line of the ball in a shot that had become known as the curtain-rail, before Bell fecklessly chipped his first delivery to deepish mid-off. Experienced observers wondered whether it was the worst stroke they had seen from an established Test batsman. Cook edged a drive off Ashwin to slip and, from 97 for seven, only Prior’s 48 helped England to as many as 191. Ojha’s five-for was the seventh by a spinner against England in 2012, and his control of flight and direction a joy to behold.
Shortly before 2pm on the third day, England were asked to bat again. Things could hardly get worse; in fact, they got rather better. As one of only two batsmen in his side – along with Pietersen – to have scored a Test century in India, Cook took it upon himself to show that playing spin need not necessarily be torture for an Englishman. Compton tucked into his captain’s slipstream, and their stand of 123 was not broken until the fourth morning. The demise of Compton, hit in line with leg stump by Zaheer, proved India had more than just slow bowling up their sleeve. And though Trott and the frenetic Pietersen – bowled behind his legs on the sweep as he moved too far across – both fell cheaply to Ojha, the next two blows were struck by Yadav. Almost ignored in the first innings, he now trapped Bell and Patel with successive deliveries to reduce England to 199 for five, still 131 behind. If Patel was unfortunate after appearing to edge the ball, then Yadav’s modus operandi was a lesson for England, whose seamers failed to find the same degree of reverse swing. While their trio of quicks would finish the match with combined figures of 72–10–255–1, India’s duo managed 72.3–16–166–7 – and they were faster, too.
Once more, England rallied. Cook, grateful for the absence of the DRS when he missed a sweep off Ojha on 41, was at his obdurate best, and Prior a willing ally. At stumps on the fourth day England led by ten, with five wickets in hand and thoughts turning to Johannesburg 1995-96, when Mike Atherton and Jack Russell – another captain/keeper combination – had pulled off their great escape. But Prior chipped a return catch to Ojha in the tenth over of the final morning to fall for 91 – among England wicketkeepers, only Warwickshire’s Dick Spooner, with 92 at Calcutta in 1951-52, had scored more in a Test in India – and end a partnership of 157 in more than 60 overs. Soon Cook was gone too, bowled by one from Ojha that spun back and kept slightly low. Another eight minutes and he would have outlasted Graeme Fowler’s epic of nine hours 23 minutes at Madras in 1984-85 – still the longest innings played for England in India. The rest followed quickly, leaving Ojha with Test-best match figures of nine for 165.
Dhoni immediately called for the pitch at Mumbai, venue for the Second Test, to spin from the first ball. India were already preparing for the kill. But it was a conviction based on England’s first innings rather than their second. And Cook was evidently not in the mood for his side to make the same mistake twice.
Man of the Match: C. A. Pujara.
U. T. Yadav did not bat.
Anderson 27–7–75–1; Broad 24–1–97–0; Bresnan 19–2–73–0; Swann 51–8–144–5; Patel 31–3–96–1; Pietersen 8–1–25–1. Second innings—Anderson 2–0–10–0; Swann 7.3–1–46–1; Patel 6–0–24–0.
Ashwin 27–9–80–3; Zaheer Khan 15–7–23–1; Ojha 22.2–8–45–5; Yuvraj Singh 3–0–12–0; Yadav 7–2–14–1. Second innings—Yadav 23–2–70–3; Ojha 55–16–120–4; Ashwin 43–9–111–1; Sehwag 1–0–1–0; Zaheer Khan 27.3–5–59–2; Tendulkar 1–0–8–0; Yuvraj Singh 4–0–17–0.
Umpires: Aleem Dar and A. L. Hill. Third umpire: S. Asnani.
Referee: R. S. Mahanama.
INDIA v ENGLAND
Second Test Match
GIDEON BROOKS
At Mumbai (Wankhede Stadium), November 23–26, 2012. England won by ten wickets. Toss: India.
When Cook lost what looked like a crucial toss, he gazed heavenwards in frustration. And well he might have looked away from the source of his expected chagrin – the roughened red Mumbai
soil and a pitch, used for a Ranji Trophy match three weeks earlier, that Dhoni had demanded should spin like a waltzer from ball one. Less than ten sessions later, Cook could have been forgiven for falling jubilantly into the Wankhede’s dusty embrace after England had completed a scarcely believable ten-wicket win. It not only dragged them level in the series, but was arguably one of their finest away victories in the 79 years since they had first played Test cricket on the subcontinent, a mile or so away along Marine Drive at the Bombay Gymkhana.
Instead, Cook wrapped his arms round fellow opener Compton, before whipping out three stumps and handing two of them on the dressing-room steps to the pair who had done most to make victory possible – Pietersen, the Man of the Match, and Panesar, a close runner-up. For India, it was only a second home defeat in 24 Tests. Gallingly, they had been trumped in conditions thought to be ideally suited to a three-pronged spin attack, with Harbhajan Singh replacing the injured fast bowler Umesh Yadav; not since India themselves hosted South Africa at Kanpur in 2004-05 had a team entered a Test with only one specialist seamer.
Cook’s was a nice touch after his first victory as full-time captain, which arrested an alarming slide in fortunes since the turn of the year. The personal milestones were a bonus: both Cook and Pietersen equalled England’s Test record of 22 centuries, while Panesar – who finished with a career-best 11 for 210 – shared 19 wickets with Swann, the best performance by English spinners in a Test since Tony Lock and Jim Laker, who also took 19, against New Zealand at Headingley in 1958.
The game had sparked into life immediately: Gambhir tucked Anderson’s first ball through midwicket, then played fatally round the next. It may just have been the only delivery that swung all match, so it was a shame half the crowd were not there to witness it. Vigilant security is one thing, but an inadequate number of turnstiles, and a list of banned items that appeared to expand and contract on a daily whim, are quite another. Spectators eventually reaching the eye of the needle were told they could not bring in cameras, cigarettes, newspapers, water or food. No wonder Test attendances in India are a cause for concern: you are lucky to get in with the shirt on your back. Latecomers were still settling into their seats when Sehwag departed just over an hour later, bowled in his 100th Test by a full-length delivery from Panesar as he aimed to leg. Included here after England admitted their mistake in leaving him out at Ahmedabad, Panesar struck again before lunch, ripping a left-arm spinner’s dream past Tendulkar’s forward prod and knocking back his off stump.
Yet if England were encouraged by two further wickets before tea, reducing India to 119 for five, their galloping enthusiasm had to be reined in, as Pujara – who completed his second hundred of the series after Anderson had missed a tough chance in the gully off Panesar when he had 60 – and Ashwin redressed the balance. A close-of-play score of 266 for six left England supporters, here in greater number than at Ahmedabad, fretful about the prospect of chasing too many batting last. And the momentum inched further in India’s direction next morning, before Pujara finally ran out of patience and partners, stumped by Prior to exit for 135 – his third century in his seventh Test, and the end of 1,015 unbeaten minutes (nearly 17 hours) and 382 runs in two games; for India, only Tendulkar (1,224 minutes in 2003-04) and Rahul Dravid (1,145 minutes in 2000-01) had batted longer between Test dismissals. Swann had already claimed his 200th Test wicket when Harbhajan walked casually across his stumps, but he was fortunate to add Zaheer Khan: even by the low umpiring standards set in this match by the normally excellent Aleem Dar, the decision to give Zaheer out caught at short leg off pad and chest took some explaining.
Cook and Compton began the reply to India’s 327 with a solid 66, but Compton edged Ojha low to Sehwag at slip and, in Ojha’s next over, Trott fell leg-before for a duck. For England, the portents looked ominous – misleadingly so, as Cook and Pietersen came together in a match-winning partnership that would not be broken until eight overs before lunch on the third day. By then, England’s captain and their maverick – one steady, the other spectacular – had put on 206, breaking the ground’s Test record for the third wicket of 194, set by Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli, a pair of Mumbaikars, against England in 1992-93. It was also the 48th century stand in Tests Cook had been involved in, breaking Geoff Boycott’s English record.
This felt apt. A crisp drive wide of mid-off on the third morning had already taken him to his 22nd Test century, where he joined Wally Hammond, Colin Cowdrey and Boycott on England’s top step; he also became the first player of any nationality to score hundreds in each of his first four Tests as captain. Twelve balls later, four made room for five as Pietersen reverse-swept the ineffectual Harbhajan, reaching three figures in 127 deliveries to Cook’s 236. The Mumbai bus system can be even more maddening than London’s but, 31 years after Boycott had equalled a record first set in 1939, England were suddenly celebrating two arrivals at once.
Cook eventually perished to the last turn of the old ball, edging Ashwin into Dhoni’s gloves. And what ended up as the final delivery before lunch then accounted, in bizarre fashion, for Bairstow, handed his chance while Ian Bell spent time at home with his new son. Bairstow was given out caught at silly point as he pushed forward to Ojha, despite replays that showed the ball sticking briefly under the grille of Gambhir’s helmet before dropping into his hands. Law 32.3(e) said this should have been not out, but both Gambhir and Bairstow later admitted they were unaware of it. Not until the local TV coverage replayed the incident less than ten minutes before the restart did England cotton on. In an uneasy echo of the teatime fiasco at Trent Bridge in July 2011, when Bell was given run out, then reprieved, team director Andy Flower quickly made representations to the umpires. Asked on the outfield moments before play resumed whether he wanted to withdraw his appeal, this time Dhoni declined – and he was well within his rights to do so.
Pietersen, meanwhile, batted on, moving to 150 with a cut for four off Ojha, then imperiously slog-sweeping the next ball for six. But, on 186, he deflected Ojha to Dhoni, ending a masterful display of violent intent that had lasted 233 balls. His runs – more than any England batsman had made at the Wankhede, surpassing Graeme Hick’s 178 in 1992-93 – came out of 314 while he was at the wicket. He later called it his best innings, even if he had been helped by the tendency of India’s spinners to drop short. Prior’s careless run-out triggered a collapse which cost England their last four wickets in 13 deliveries, but their lead of 86 felt like decent ammunition for an assault with the ball.
Even so, no one could have predicted what happened next. In the 33 overs that remained on the third evening, India lost seven for 117, five to Panesar, whose extra pace through the air left the batsmen reluctant to commit to the front foot on a surface offering bounce; the demise of Tendulkar, trapped on the crease, was symptomatic. By stumps, India’s scorecard resembled a half-decent poker hand: a pair of sixes, a pair of eights and the makings of a low straight flush. But their stakes were as good as lost. The last three fell in 45 minutes the following morning, when Gambhir’s hopes of carrying his bat were thwarted by another umpiring error: Tony Hill failed to spot an inside edge.
Panesar, though, had been denied the best Test figures by an English spinner in India when Dar contrived to miss Ojha’s thick edge to backward short leg. That record remained with Hedley Verity, a fellow left-arm spinner, and his 11 for 153 at Madras in 1933-34, although Panesar could at least boast England’s first ten-wicket haul in India since Neil Foster’s 11 for 163, also at Madras, in 1984-85.
Regardless, all 28 wickets to fall to bowlers following Gambhir’s removal in the game’s first over had now gone to spin. Perhaps determined not to add to the tally, England’s openers knocked off the runs in under ten overs. India looked ashen-faced. From nowhere, the series had come alive.
Man of the Match: K. P. Pietersen.
Anderson 18–3–61–1; Broad 12–1–60–0; Panesar 47–12–129–5; Swann 34.1–7–70–4; Patel 4–1–6–0. Second innings—Anderson 4
–1–9–0; Panesar 22–3–81–6; Swann 18.1–6–43–4.
Ashwin 42.3–6–145–2; Ojha 40–6–143–5; Zaheer Khan 15–4–37–0; Harbhajan Singh 21–1–74–2; Yuvraj Singh 3–0–8–0. Second innings—Ashwin 3.4–0–22–0; Ojha 4–0–16–0; Harbhajan Singh 2–0–10–0.
Umpires: Aleem Dar and A. L. Hill. Third umpire: S. Ravi.
Referee: R. S. Mahanama.
INDIA v ENGLAND
Third Test Match
SURESH MENON
At Kolkata, December 5–9, 2012. England won by seven wickets. Toss: India.
In the days when India merely made up the numbers, their supporters would soften the blow by divorcing team results from individual performances. Gradually, things changed and, by 2009 – when they went top of the Test rankings – there was no longer any need to look for the positives cherished by the losing captain. But after successive 4–0 defeats abroad, India were reverting to type. England, for so long hapless tourists in this part of the world, were doing the opposite. Suddenly, Indian cricket had once more become full of old-style consolation: Rahul Dravid’s three centuries in England, for example, or Kohli’s maiden Test hundred at Adelaide. And anyway, went the argument, India were still kings at home. They had the spinners and, in Zaheer Khan, the master of reverse swing, praised during this game by Anderson, who had copied his practice of hiding the ball from the batsman’s view until the last minute. And, of course, India had the batting, with Pujara the latest exemplar.