IND vs ENG | Lack of swing from Dukes ball is surprising, says Paul Collingwood

09/05/2021

Paul Collingwood has said that lack of swing from the Dukes ball has surprised him during the ongoing fourth Test match versus England at The Oval. Notably, in overcast conditions, India lost only three wickets and took a handy 171-run lead after overcoming a 99-run first inning deficit on Saturday.

England assistant coach Paul Collingwood was surprised to see the lack of swing from the duke ball on Day 3 of the fourth Test in London's The Oval.

Notably, India lost only 3 wickets on Saturday and overcame the first innings deficit of 99 runs before building a solid 171-run lead. Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja were unbeaten in the middle when the play was stopped and later called off for the day.

"I thought we were very disciplined and stuck to task all day. But one thing that surprised us was the lack of swing from the duke ball," Paul Collingwood told reporters in a virtual interaction after the day's proceedings.

"We all know once there's some movement in the air, and the wicket with some carry it would trouble the Indian batsmen. So we were pretty surprised and could not get the swing. We tried everything with it, changing the shining side but could not get movement," he said.

The former England middle-order batsman also heaped rich praises on Rohit Sharma, who danced down the track to bring up his first-ever overseas century.

"He's (Rohit Sharma) got a very good technique. He has played really well so far in the series. We have found in the past he's quite an attacking batsman. But he has been very watchful in the series. It was hard to create any chances in the series. You got to give him a lot of credit."

Collingwood, however, remained hopeful of capitalising their chances and said they would not be scared of any total.

"We have seen throughout the Test series, momentum shifted very quickly. If we can get some movement, we can exploit the conditions and put the middle and tail order under pressure.

"The conditions looked good for batting, so we should not be scared of whatever total they set. Hope we have a good day tomorrow," he said.