England stun India by 28 runs in a remarkable comeback test win , Pope, Hartley new heroes

 

Rohit Sharma led India lost to England on four days in Hyderabad.  The Indian batters surrendered helplessly in front of England's 'infamous' spinners despite chasing a modest target  due to irresponsible batting of several cricketers of Rohit's team.  Ravichandran Ashwin and Srikar Bharath kept England away from winning for a while.  That effort was unsuccessful.  India started the series losing by 28 runs.

 The target of victory was not high.  231.  Hyderabad's 22 yards was still very much playable .  Ollie Pope proved it in the morning.  But India missed the opportunity to win.  No one had the mentality to stand on the wicket and bat in a proper manner.  The time has come to think about Shubman Gill  in red ball cricket as well as Shreyas Iyer .    Another young batsman Yasaswi Jaiswal (15) also failed at the start after a good 1st innings score .  India fell under pressure after losing 2 wickets for 42 runs. Jaiswal was caught at short leg and Gill (0)  followed suit   That pressure increased as captain Rohit (39) also got out quickly lbw to Hartley .  Akshar Patel was brought down to handle the situation.  India send  the left-handed all-rounder to form a right-handed pair with Lokesh Rahul.  Akshar (17) gave the team confidence till the tea break.  He could not add more runs after the break as he was caught and bowled by Hartley .  Rahul's (22) bat did not give hope this day .  He was dismissed by Joe Root lbw.  England's young spinner Tom Hartley dismissed all four of India's first five batters.  He achieved the feat of taking 5 wickets in his debut Test.  He took 7 wickets for 62 runs.

The spinners were getting help from the fourth morning on the Hyderabad pitch.  Stokes therefore started the bowling attack with Root.  Mark Wood was bowled in short spells  but Stokes  main aim was to trap the Indian batting line-up with spin.  Shreyas (17) failed again.  Ravindra Jadeja (2) threw the wicket getting run out   Ravichandran Ashwin had to be run out for him in the first innings.  India's hopes of victory were virtually over after  7 wickets went down for 119 runs.  Srikar Bharat and Ashwin tried to put up some resistance towards the end.  Bharat got out for a stubborn 28 runs as he was bowled by an unplayable ball from Hartley .  Their eighth wicket partnership added 57 runs.  Ashwin also got out after 28 runs stumped off Hartley as he tried a wild shot .  In the end Mohammad Siraj was out by scoring 12 runs also going for a wild swipe at Hartley .  Bumrah remained unbeaten on 6 runs.  Apart from Hartley, Root and Jack Leach took 1 wicket each.

 Earlier, England's second innings ended on 420 before the lunch break on Sunday.  Ollie Pope narrowly misses out on a double hundred.  He scored  a splendid 196 runs with the help of 21 fours.  Ben Stokes has thrown a challenge in front of India mainly due to his innings.  Pope hit 21 fours in an innings of 278 balls.  He was dismissed by Bumrah as the last batsman of the team.  England's first innings ended with 246 runs.  They fell behind by 190 runs as India scored 436 runs in their 1st innings .  At least one English batsman needed a big innings to stay in contention.  Pope did that for the team.  Batting at number three, he not only batted for a day and more,  but also led the team's innings.  At the other end of the wicket, he was rewarded for remaining consistent with the goal.  Although he could not complete his second double century in the Test, he brought the team to more competitive position and then the rest was history .

India will be thoroughly disappointed for losing this test after dominating it for around 3 days.