India vs England | Takeaways: Shikhar Dhawan’s lack of patience and Moeen Ali’s deja vu moment
A sublime and classy century by Cheteshwar Pujara and lower-order resistance by Ishant Sharma helped India reach a total of 273 runs on Day 2. On a day when Virat Kohli struggled for runs, Shikhar Dhawan has also failed to keep his composure and fell prey to his over-eagerness against Stuart Broad.
Complacency can be disastrous, Shikhar
In the third Test, I had written about how Shikhar Dhawan had waited for the ball to come to him which was a change to his technique in the first Test at Edgbaston. His deep stance allowed him to dictate the swing on offer and it was no different in Southampton as well. While he countered the ball easily today with the same technique in the first few overs, he missed out on a small detail that cost his wicket.Â
When Broad was bowling from around the wicket, Dhawan had taken a middle-and-off stump guard and judged the bounce nicely. But the important fact about Test cricket is that you can never be complacent and the moment you become a bit lazy or take your position for granted, your price tag will be removed easily.
After becoming comfortable at the crease, Dhawan tried to flick a full ball off Broad on off-stump and luckily the ball brushed his thigh pad on the back leg. It was the signs of things to come. Then, Dhawan was in no mood to wait for the deliveries rather wanted to take on the bowlers. On the very first ball off his next over, Broad came from around the wicket once again, and slowly angled it wide of the crease and straightened the ball off the seam to which the Delhi Southpaw had no answer to and was completely beaten.Â
Dhawan then decided to jump out of his crease on the next delivery to the surprise of many or rather in the hope of unsettling Broad's plans. Sensing an opportunity, the pacer repeated the same ball once again, which could have been easily left behind. But Dhawan had lost his concentration then and nicked the ball. It was a sad end to an innings that showed a lot of promise in the beginning.
Kohli struggles, but Pujara shines - an unlike tale
“Virat Kohli is an accomplished batsman and he can easily do away with his bad record in England, but why do you pick Cheteshwar Pujara in the team for the England series?” The build-up to the India-England Test series was based on this fixed narrative. While the first one stood tall to the expectations, Pujara just handed his critics a reality check with his solid batting in swinging conditions.Â
Kohli and Pujara eased their way into a 92-run partnership and helped the side recover after England bagged two wickets through Stuart Broad's persistence. As usual, Pujara was happy not to be rushed as his first boundary came after 36 deliveries. In contrast, his captain punched Stuart Broad for his first four off the second ball he faced. But after that, it was a contrasting tale.Â
Kohli decided not to work through the ball on the back-foot when given the width and it was surprising considering the fact that the technique helped India score more fluently in the Trent Bridge Test. He struggled throughout the innings of 46 runs. Pujara, on the other end, waited for the bad balls to score runs and apart from few odd ones, he even didn’t play a false shot. It was just one of those days when the opposite happens but take nothing away from what Pujara did. His century was a tribute to concentration and hard work.Â
Moeen Ali's Southampton deja vu
Indian players are not natural sweepers rather more dependent on using their feet to get to the pitch of the ball or shortening the length by rocking back works well for them. Four years ago, India realised that the one-dimensional ploy was not going to take them anywhere as they spent hours in the nets under the guidance of Trevor Penney to perfect their sweep. But, when the original Test came along, Moeen Ali proved his brilliance and sent eight Indian batsmen packing at this very venue in the course of the encounter.
Come 2018, Moeen Ali, after being out of the team for the first three Tests, was called up for the Rose Bowl Test and boy, did he leave a mark. After the winter he endured in the Ashes, it's still pretty astonishing that he's weaving his magic in the same way he did four years ago. Despite his excellence on home soil, there has been frustration with his form outside of England. Of course, one of the reasons can be attributed for his home dominance is the collective pressure built by the English bowling unit in the helpful English conditions. Once tied down by the Anderson and co, batsmen are left with no option than to attack Moeen without due respect to his bowling, which meant they threw away the wickets more often.
However, Moeen of today was different. He kept on bowling on the rough areas and in the beginning, didn’t allow the batsmen to get used to him and ended up having five wickets to show to his name.
Cricket FootBall Kabaddi
Basketball Hockey
SportsCafe