The Shorter Wisden 2013 (65 page)

India’s consolation was no real consolation at all. Tendulkar’s first fifty in 11 innings was a scratchy knock, serving to highlight his determination but also his decline. When
Panesar had asked him to sign the ball with which he had dismissed him for his first Test wicket in 2005-06, Tendulkar had written on it: “Once in a blue moon, never again”. But he had
already been proved wrong. And now his struggle against Panesar’s left-arm spin, inside-edging and slicing attempted drives, was symbolic. The gap between the two standing ovations Tendulkar
was receiving per innings – one walking out to bat, the other returning – had been getting smaller, so his 76 here, which took him past Sunil Gavaskar’s Indian record of 2,483
Test runs against England, at least provided temporary respite. Yet he could do nothing about a delivery from Anderson – the first after the drinks break on the first evening – that
reversed just enough to take the edge. And for those who see significance in such things, the Indian flag on a building outside the stadium was at half-mast.

That wicket reasserted England’s early grip on the match, which had been helped by a terrible piece of running between Gambhir and Sehwag after they had raced to 47 in ten overs on the
first morning. England never let go and, at stumps on the second day, were 216 for one, with Cook dominant on 136 – his 23rd Test century, to overtake the national record he had equalled only
11 days earlier in Mumbai. He was not yet 28, prompting many to believe that at least some of Tendulkar’s batting records might one day be his. Cook also went past 7,000 runs in his 86th
Test, faster than Viv Richards, Ricky Ponting and Greg Chappell. He was also the youngest to reach the mark, at 27 years 347 days; Tendulkar was seven months older. And Cook’s fluency allowed
Compton to find his form in his own time and with his own methods, though he was unlucky to be given out leg-before on 57: replays showed the ball had brushed his glove as he swept Ojha.

India’s big chance had already come and gone when Cook, on 17, edged Zaheer Khan low to first slip, where Pujara couldn’t hold on – another area where Dravid was being missed.
When Cook finally fell, having batted eight hours 12 minutes and faced 377 balls, it was refreshing to know that the superman who loomed large in the nightmares of Indian bowlers was in fact human
after all. He had never been run out in first-class cricket, but now Pietersen turned Zaheer into the leg side to Kohli, the Indian fielder most likely to pull off a direct hit. Backing up, Cook
motioned to regain his ground, only to flinch – bat in the air, and still out of his crease – as the throw whizzed past him on to the stumps. He knew instantly he was out, and later
called it a “brain fade”. Only Arthur Morris, Garry Sobers and Younis Khan had been run out in the 190s in Test cricket before; only Mike Gatting and Graeme Fowler, in the same game at
Madras in 1984-85, had scored more for England in a Test innings in India.

The last four wickets fell quickly on the fourth morning, yet there was no hint of the drama to follow when India went to lunch at 86 without loss, 121 behind, with Sehwag in battling form.
Swann sneaked the first ball after the break between his bat and pad – and soon, as they struggled for breath, India were reeling at 122 for six. Pujara was run out by a brilliant throw from
Bell, before Anderson and Finn, finally recovered from a thigh injury and chosen ahead of Stuart Broad, bowled superbly. It was the session that decided the Test – and, it transpired, the
series. Finn bowled with pace, angling the ball in to the batsmen, troubling them with bounce, and inducing edges with the one that held its line. Anderson’s control of reverse swing
precluded any Cook-like vigil from the Indians. And Tendulkar’s brief stay was up when he misread a straight delivery from Swann and edged to slip.

But to the delight of a gratifyingly large crowd, Ashwin kept fighting, driving the new ball and shielding last man Ojha to avert an innings defeat and a four-day finish. Their stand was worth
50 on the final morning before Ojha fell to Anderson – the off bail taking an age to topple after being kissed almost imperceptibly – giving the fast bowlers six wickets to the
spinners’ three. England needed 41 for a 2–1 lead, but slipped to eight for three, including Cook, who became only the second batsman – after England’s Archie MacLaren at
Sydney in 1894-95 – to be stumped in the first over of a Test innings. But Bell, back in place of Jonny Bairstow, settled the issue with Compton.

Clearly, India were not handling transition well. Many of those who had helped place them on the pedestal had retired. And those who remained, such as Tendulkar, Harbhajan and Zaheer – who
was immediately dropped for the Fourth Test, along with Yuvraj Singh – were floundering. The fielding had also gone backwards, and the many justifications of fielding coach Trevor Penney
painted India as a team in denial: “We don’t need specialists,” he said, loyally backing the stragglers. A banner in the crowd read: “Dhoni, we will stand by you.” But
India needed more than loyalty.

Man of the Match:
A. N. Cook.

Anderson 28–7–89–3; Finn 21–2–73–1; Panesar 40–13–90–4; Swann 16–3–46–1. Second innings— Anderson
15.4–4–38–3; Finn 18–6–45–3; Panesar 22–1–75–1; Swann 28–9–70–2; Patel 1–0–9–0.

Zaheer Khan 31–6–94–1; Sharma 29–8–78–1; Ashwin 52.3–9–183–3; Ojha 52–10–142–4; Yuvraj Singh
3–1–9–0.
Second innings
—Ashwin 6.1–1–31–2; Ojha 6–3–10–1.

Umpires: H. D. P. K. Dharmasena and R. J. Tucker. Third umpire: V. A. Kulkarni.

Referee: J. J. Crowe.

INDIA v ENGLAND

Fourth Test Match

R
ICHARD
H
OBSON

At Nagpur, December 13–17, 2012. Drawn. Toss: England. Test debuts: R. A. Jadeja; J. E. Root.

A Test match that felt like a throwback to a sleepier past produced a series result that was just as unfamiliar to the modern audience: an England win in India. The draw confirmed a 2–1
scoreline, and the sluggish rate of scoring over the five days on a desperately slow pitch mattered not a jot to the victorious Cook, who took the Man of the Series award to boot. The fact that so
much rested on the outcome lent a soporific contest a strange kind of tension. Ultimately, though, England batted out their second innings in comfort, and there was something rather low-key –
like a County Championship match petering out on a Saturday afternoon – about the conclusion, with hands shaken 50 minutes after tea on the final day. The result had been a formality for
several hours as the Warwickshire pair of Trott and Bell stretched their abstemious partnership to 208.

And yet nobody predicted such a dry, dour contest. Following England’s win at Kolkata, pundits expected the surface at Nagpur to generate a positive result, perhaps even inside three days.
In truth, there was no meaningful precedent. Curator Praveen Hingnikar – banned by the BCCI from talking to the media before the game following the outbursts of his Eden Gardens counterpart
– had relaid the topsoil earlier in the year; this was the first contest since. Hingnikar was more surprised than anyone that cracks in the new surface refused to widen under sunshine. Dhoni
remarked phlegmatically that the game could have continued for another three days and still ended in a draw.

Pietersen described the first-day pitch as the least conducive to strokeplay he had ever encountered. Only towards the end of the match, as fresh grass allowed a little more pace, could batsmen
feel confident about playing the odd shot. But by then England had no cause for urgency. Except against the new ball, both captains placed fielders for mistimed drives rather than edges, and it was
not unusual for batsmen to shape to duck against deliveries that eventually reached them at hip height. The second day produced the most runs, 218; eight individual fifties were compiled from an
average of 127 balls; three hundreds from 271. Timeless Tests of yore must have followed the same tempo.

India did not help themselves with an unbalanced selection. Putting all their snakes in one basket, they chose three specialist slow bowlers, plus Ravindra Jadeja, a left-arm-spinning
all-rounder handed a debut in place of Yuvraj Singh. Jadeja proceeded to bowl more overs (70) in the match than either Ashwin or Chawla, the leg-spinner picked in place of Zaheer Khan for his first
Test since April 2008; a gap of 49 Tests between appearances was an Indian record. The selectors’ error became clear during the game’s opening spell, from Sharma, now the lone seamer,
which brought two wickets.

With no bite for their spinners, India were at least spared the threat of Steven Finn, missing because of a back injury when his height might have coaxed something from the surface. Bresnan, his
replacement, made little impression, yet one England hunch on selection proved inspired, as the 21-year-old Yorkshire opener Joe Root – replacing Samit Patel, and unexpectedly chosen ahead of
both Jonny Bairstow and Eoin Morgan – marked his own debut with a display of rare assurance in an unfamiliar slot at No. 6.

Cook himself suffered his only bad match of the series. After winning his first toss in six Tests as captain, he received two questionable decisions from umpire Dharmasena in a contest that left
England repeating their support for DRS. Trott, though, could blame only himself, as he left a ball from Jadeja that went straight on, and Bell succumbed to a timid push to short extra cover,
having matched Cook in taking 28 balls over a single. When Pietersen flicked to midwicket to end a restrained 73, the England first innings was tottering at 139 for five. But Root showed the
temperament and the light footwork that had persuaded the management his technique would hold up against spin. Prior dug in to confirm his maturity as a batsman for all situations and, by stumps,
England were an old-fashioned 199 for five from 97 overs, having faced the equivalent of 80 overs of dot-balls. Next day, the pair extended their stand to 103, and a relatively brisk half-century
from Swann – his first in Tests for three years – took England beyond 300. Root’s 73 came from 229 balls, in 11 minutes short of five hours, and he was furious with himself when a
leading edge supplied a return catch to the inoffensive Chawla.

A total of 330 looked like par, but superb swing bowling by Anderson on the second afternoon defined the middle of the game. The third ball of the innings nipped in to expose Sehwag’s
leaden footwork. Tendulkar was then bowled via an inside edge by a ball keeping a shade low, a dismissal that stirred, rather than advanced, the debate about his future; it was a record ninth time
that he had fallen to Anderson, one clear of Muttiah Muralitharan. A series of inswingers set up the left-handed Gambhir for the one going across, and the wicket of Jadeja was Anderson’s
528th in all international cricket, equalling Ian Botham’s England record. Pujara, meanwhile, had already fallen to a fine right-handed catch by Bell at short leg off Swann, although replays
showed the ball had deviated from forearm rather than glove.

Crucially, Anderson had forced India – 87 for four at the second-day close – to consolidate when the state of the series required them to be positive. Kohli and Dhoni (to some
surprise, he had promoted himself above Jadeja who, a fortnight previously, had become the first Indian to score three first-class triple-centuries) responded by taking 507 balls over a stand of
198, watching every one of them like hawks. Neither man had batted for as long in a Test before, with Kohli in particular fighting against poor form as well as his instinct to attack. He eventually
departed straight after drinks in the final session of the third day, having completed his third Test hundred from 289 balls. But, excruciatingly, Dhoni fell for 99, run out by a direct hit from
Cook at mid-off as he attempted a desperate single. It was his first risk of the innings, an unthinkable liberty had he been on 98 or 100. The pressure of being in the nineties for more than an
hour had finally told.

With time of the essence, India’s approach on the fourth morning was baffling. Ashwin initially chose to turn down singles to keep Ojha away from strike, and only 29 runs came in the first
hour – which suited England – before Dhoni declared four runs behind. England had merely to avoid mishaps, and never allowed themselves to be fazed by their slow progress. Cook had one
run to his name from 46 balls by lunch, while Compton hit a single four in 134 deliveries before being adjudged leg-before despite an inside edge (although the ball flew straight to gully, so he
was out one way or another).