What a turnaround in 10 days! On July 21, Indian supporters were on the top of the world as the national side beat England in the second Test at Lords by 95 runs to lead 1-0 in the Pataudi Trophy.
Ten days later they were in despair as England annihilated them in the third Test at Southampton by 266 runs.
So what happened in one week? The hero of the Lord’s Test, Ishant Sharma, was injured and was omitted from the team for the third Test.
Another contributor for the Lord’s victory, Ravindra Jadeja, bowled a poor line and length and dropped captain Alastair Cook early on in the first innings. He went on to score 95.
There were many heroes for England too. Gary Ballance scored 156, Ian Bell 167 and Jos Buttler 85 on debut in the first innings. Joe Root played a flamboyant innings of 56 in the second at a strike rate of 136.58.
Man of the match fast bowler Jimmy Anderson bowled sensationally in the first innings to take 5/53 and the bearded off-spinner Moeen Ali bowled 6/67 in the second to dismiss a dispirited India for 178.
But for me it was skipper Alastair Cook who was behind this change of attitude by the England team.
Criticised by every critic – myself included – for his lack of batting form against Australia, Sri Lanka and India until last week, he came out to open the innings like a man on a mission.
Gone was his hesitancy, which was replaced by authority as he scored 95 in the first innings and an unbeaten 70 in the second. ‘Drop Cook as a batsman and skipper’ was the catch cry of critics, including Shane Warne.
I could discern a now or never attitude as Cook faced the first ball of the Test. And he was in charge throughout.
With centuries from Gary Ballance and Ian Bell (enriched with three sixes) and 85 by Buttler (belting three sixes as well) England declared at 7/569 on an easy-paced pitch.
India started their response poorly with Virat Kohli failing again and were all-out for 330, trailing England by 239 runs. Rather than enforce the follow-on Cook decided to bat again and go for runs.
All England’s batsmen attacked with gusto and declared at 4/205 at five runs an over. That set India a monumental 445 to win and they started poorly, losing four for 112 at stumps on day four.
The Test was finished before lunch on the final day as India lost the last six wickets for 66 runs. The only batsman to show some resistance was Ajinkya Rahane, who made a gritty and unbeaten 52.
He had also top-scored for India in the first innings with 54. The other batsmen, apart from skipper MS Dhoni in the first innings, were pathetic.
The series is now locked one-all with two Tests to go. Ten more sleepless nights for cricket lovers in Australia!
Nick
Guest
If you'd just stuck to SA you might have had a winning argument but then you ruined it by trying to associate Australia's laughably feeble batsmen with them. Anderson had a poor series last winter but in the two previous series against Oz he took 24w @ 26 in 2010/11 and 22 @ 29 in 2013. But then I guess Oz are just very very ordinary. Afterall Australia's first five wickets didn't perform any better than England's during the winter.
Nick
Guest
Medium pace?! Throughout the summer Anderson has been touching 89-90mph which is more than enough when you swing it both ways. I don't remember him bowling as consistently quickly as he has this year.
Colin N
Guest
Geez, with all this slating of the England team, it seems like three successive Ashes victories (4 out of 5) and number one in the world never happened. Some people have incredibly short memories. In fact, with the amount of players the Australian public and press have targeted at some point (Anderson, Swann, Cook, Bell etc) it's amazing England have even won a game at all.
jammel
Guest
Haha - Ronan - I think England will just play for draws. We will see moderately batting friendly wickets with England stacking their batting line-up with bits and pieces players - e.g. Ali/Woakes/Stokes/Jordan - so that the likes of Broad are batting at 10 or 11. They'll be hoping that swing might win them a match.
Beauty of a geek brains of a bimbo(atgm)
Guest
Well i think indian battin line up is one of the best and james is an exceptional bowler in conditions suited to him
BrumbyJack
Guest
England need him right now E! Roger I couldn't agree more. India look terrible. They are going to cop a pasting in every test. As for England, well I've already explained my views.... Take the $1.68 now on Aus to win the upcoming 2015 Ashes series. 68% return on your money in 12 months is not shabby...
E-Meter
Guest
Freddie Flintoff is coming back!
Roger Regor
Guest
The England/India series will splutter towards mediocrity and encourage the English selectors to keep Ballance, Bell, Broad and Ali going into next year and the BCCI to keep Jadeja, Dhoni, Kohli and such for the Australian tour this year. Australia will monster India here and won't need Harris, if he gets injured again. to beat England in the Ashes next year. He would be the icing on the cake. Neither India or England are good enough, on current showing, to trouble the present Australian team. That's a pity
ChrisT
Guest
Tom, you're off your noggin mate. Of course that dressing room wasn't right - it was obvious from the preceding series before they even got to Brisbane. Swan chucking it in and Pietersen subsequently booted couldn't make that more obvious. Australia cashed in here, and so have a few sides since. Good luck to them. But there's still a huge amount of talent in that team as well as promising new stuff being bloodied. Australia have to transition players themselves as a few are already held together with gaffer tape. There's a year to go and a lot of cricket to be played. Really enjoying listening to you boys working yourselves into a lather of typical bravado ....the stuff that comes so often before a major crash for you. And then the sooking really starts. Love it!
BrumbyJack
Guest
Outside of England he is ordinary, inside of England he is ordinary... My point being he is just bowling against a very very ordinary batting line up! Put Anderson against Amla, De Villiers and Faf, or against our own Clarke, Smith and Haddin, and he gets annihilated. England will be in big trouble in the upcoming Ashes until they can find a quality third seamer, and find a front line FAST, not medium paced, bowler to replace Anderson or Broad. And of course now they have no choice but to keep Moeen Ali in the team, they will stop looking to find a really quality first rate spinner. Bring on the Ashes against this ordinary England test team!
Frankie Hughes
Guest
'Clever English seamer'? Nearly fell of my chair in laughter... Unless I'm mistaken Ryan Harris was leading wicket taker in 2013 Ashes. And he only play 4 Tests.
Frankie Hughes
Guest
Anderson bowling average of 30. So pretty much fodder most of time until the flukes a few wickets in England.
Tom from Perth
Guest
Yeah, what a shame. I was hoping he'd get a 2 test suspension.
Tom from Perth
Guest
Hahaha Ronan. Bakkies you're a goose mate.
Tom from Perth
Guest
Where were all of these "key players" in the recent Ashes? Weren't they in form when the first delivery was bowled in Brisbane? Didn't they, outside of Alistair Cook, only become out of form because of Australia's bowlers? If so, how can you assert that these "key players" in form can "take on any Australian bowler in the current crop"?
ChrisT
Guest
Not so Ronan. They have the choice of preparing wickets that play to clever English seam bowling. If a few key players find form again they have enough batting talent to take on any Australian bowler in the current crop and a tail that could do real damage. They don't have to prepare negatively at all and they'd be stupid to entertain doing so.
ChrisT
Guest
That's a really dumb observation. When Anderson bowls like that, any batsman in the world is (and has been) under threat.
Beauty of a geek brains of a bimbo(atgm)
Guest
Anderson at home is one of the best if not the best imo.outside england hes ordinary........
Bakkies
Guest
Anderson went back to his home comforts swinging the duke outside off stump against batsmen who struggle with that type of bowling. Put a kookaburra in his hand on a 37 degree day with a flat pitch than he is fodder. There was more than a touch of Johnson '09 about Jordan's bowling I wouldn't be surprised to see Plunkett back for The Oval if he doesn't perform in Manchester.
Bakkies
Guest
Pot kettle Ronan. Ali in just 3 tests is nearly half way to equalling Warne's career total of 43 wickets against India bowling quick loopy offspinners of course he is bitter.