Well, that was a very hard watch as an Indian fan.
Big big congrats to England. You can say what you want about the pitch, the conditions and the attack (and I have, about the attack atleast
) but to keep chasing these huge scores in the 4th innings shows something amazing. Duckett and Crawley were immense. Duckett will get all the credit and deservedly so, but I think Crawley's innings absorbing the pressure and some probing new ball bowling in difficult conditions does show there is a bit more to him than just put your foot down and smack.
This was an excellent test match but I honestly do not see any other two sides contriving a result on such a flat pitch, even with the overhead at times helping some swing to some extent. England gave India a huge advantage at the toss and India were just not good enough to take it up. England, on the other hand, took every advantage India handed back to them and built on it and that is why they have won with 5 wickets in the hut. That said, this was a game where the result could have gone either way going into the last session and that usually means a very good test match. Two flawed teams ended up giving us a really good match and the team that made the lesser mistakes won.
For India, this does not hurt as bad as the BG test losses. Quite a lot of the balls and nicks went just where the fielders were not, even outside of the 6 or so dropped chances we gave England in this game. The bowling attack is worrying but one good sign I picked up on, is that they seemed to improve as the game went on. The bowling outside of Bumrah, the captaincy, the fields etc. Long way to go but I feel the signs are good. In a way, this almost feels like the first test when Virat was captain back in Australia. I hope we search hard and find the right bowlers to make this team better, soon.
For England, this was a great great win but the fact that you had to work so hard to beat a very middling Indian side that is in transition, with such a woeful bowling attack, does not augur well for the Ashes. I like the look of Smith as the wicket-keeper and feel he has a bit more to him. Brook is a great talent but sometimes too lippy for his own good. As long as these guys can stay grounded and not end up buying their own hype, they should win this series. But for the Ashes, unless they find some really good bowlers, they are gonna struggle. Both these sides are well off the pace of Aus and South Africa. And probably New Zealand as well.
