A very boring and tame Test match finally ends

Category :Cricket

Test matches are already losing interest amongst the cricket fans. To add to it, if there are flat pitches like the one seen in the first Test between India and England, wouldn’t help the game at all.

It was a pretty boring and uninteresting Test match between India and England, which was played at Trent Bridge. It was evident from the very beginning that it would be hard for the bowlers – from any team, to pick up wickets. There was hardly anything for them initially.

That is the reason why M S Dhoni decided to bat after he won the toss. Why it was a tough wicket to bowl on was evident from the fact that England used as many as four fast bowlers who bowled 142 overs between them out of the total 161 bowled in the first innings.

All this effort gave them eight Indian wickets.

Let us admit this that Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami aren’t batsmen. They aren’t even bowlers who can bat. But, they put on a partnership towards the end of the first innings for India that truly frustrated the home team.

But, that wasn’t the end of the tale of the tail enders.

James Anderson found the form of his life with the bat as he scored 81 runs along with Joe Root to build a bigger last wicket partnership than India did before. When the Indian last wicket partnership was going strong, it was obvious what in store for the Indian bowlers was.

It was only after the first session of the fourth morning that the pitch started assisting the bowlers a bit. However, it needed veteran campaigners like Stuart Broad and James Anderson to get the best out of the little help. They were more or less successful in doing this with the experience they had all these years.

However, the flat nature of the pitch should not take away the efforts put in by debutant Stuart Binny. When wickets were falling around him, credit should go to him for saving the Test with a patient knock of 78 runs off 114 balls.

When England weren’t getting wicket and the bowlers getting tired, captain Cook himself came on to bowl. It was a bit of an entertainment for the English crowd as he not only amused the spectators, but also picked up the wicket of Ishant Sharma. In fact, it was a catch that stuck in the hands of wicketkeeper Matt Prior behind, much to the delight of Cook.

We just hope that the second Test that starts in a couple of days now, has some juice in it. Just defending the balls or letting them to the wicketkeeper won’t serve the purpose.