Test cricket returns!

Test cricket had been away so long that it has taken a while to re-enter my routine, although Talksport having the radio coverage doesn’t help to be fair.  England away in India, the hardest tour of all because nobody beats India at home, not since 2012 at least and who won then?  One of the last great performances by an England team that had recently been number one in the world.

With two days gone India were well on top after their spinners bamboozled us and their batsmen demonstrated how it should be done taking them to an innings lead of 190.  The rest of the match should follow a predictable course to an inevitable conclusion but one thing we know about Stokes’ team is they are capable of turning things around, we may not expect them to but we know they can.  Even so at this point there was little motivation to tune into the audial faecal treacle that is Talksport’s coverage.

The fight back started on day three, led by a brilliant innings from Ollie Pope, very much a forgotten man.  It was great to see Ben Foakes back in the team too, a typical gritty 30+ in the second innings to help put on 112 with Pope when the match was in the balance. The tail wagged along with Pope too, did England have a defendable target?  Yes! someone called Hartley bowled us to victory on the fourth day!  The Foakes fan club must mention the two stumpings at the end as well.  England had won another brilliant test match, this was almost unbelievable but then again we’re not really surprised anymore. 

Last time England toured here we won the first test then crumbled but I can’t see this happening again and whatever the final outcome I think England will be competitive.  I certainly won’t be surprised if we go on and win this time.  India are a damn good team and incredibly difficult to beat on their own wickets but England are the best Test team in the world at the moment, whatever the rankings say.  It all starts again on Friday…

Elsewhere another pleasing and unexpected result saw West Indies bowl out Australia to win a test match and draw that series.  Only India have left OZ undefeated over the last decade so that is a an excellent result, but WI have a habit of winning games like this then going mising again.