England's New Trick works...for Fifth time

Barmy Army has cricket, and food, for Smiles

Joe Root, one of the great Test batsmen of all time, has scored 30 Test centuries. Ollie Pope scored his fifth on the third day of the first Test against India at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Hyderabad on Saturday and Root described it as “a generational innings” before saying that he’d “never scored one as good as that.”

If any cricket lovers didn’t love Root before, only the most stone-hearted, anti-Yorkies could fail to be swayed by his self-effacing generosity of spirit and praise for a team-mate who needed a significant innings to re-affirm his place in the team, and as vice-captain, too.

    “He’s worked his backside off for this, we are all just so chuffed for him because he deserves every bit of success that he gets,” Root said. “The situation of the game, the conditions, everything just makes this one of the great hundreds for England, it was a masterclass and one of the best knocks I’ve ever seen. I’ve scored hundreds in the subcontinent but nothing like this,” Root said.

“I respectively beg to differ with Joe,” said my TalkSport co-commentator, Steve Harmison. “It says everything about Joe’s personality and character that he should be so generous in his praise for Ollie, and he probably meant every word when he said them, but Joe is characteristically forgetting just how good some of his own innings were.”

    “Having said that, he’s right about the quality of Ollie’s hundred. Quick on his feet, creative and also reactive to the conditions and the bowlers, he never relented in his determination to score runs, he just kept going…it was brilliant,” Harmison said.

    Should Pope continue significantly beyond his 148* on the fourth morning, in the company of Rehan Ahmed (16*), Tom Hartley, Mark Wood and a hobbling Jack Leach, his innings may yet be recorded in the Hall of Fame should England pull off one of the most unlikely of victories with a first innings deficit of 190-runs.

What was confirmed by Pope’s innings, for the fifth time, is that Ben Stokes’ and Brendan McCullum’s conviction that relentlessly positive cricket, including run-scoring batting in place of ‘accumulation’, can work, even in India, even on day three on a spinner-friendly pitch, even with a spirit-curdling first innings deficit of 190.

    ‘Bazball’ worked against New Zealand and India at home. But would it work against South Africa’s pace-attack led by Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje? Yes. But on the slow pitches of Pakistan? Yes. 3-0. Against Australia? Ashes pressure, and all that? After a brief stutter, emphatically Yes. But could it work in India? The ultimate test. The answer will come in the weeks to come but, today, the answer was another emphatic Yes.

A first innings deficit of 190 in India is fatal. History shows that such a deficit requires too many overs and wickets to erase to become competitive once again. The scorecard won’t reflect the impact made by Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, but scoring at six runs per over and reaching 113-1 inside 19 overs was a gut-punch to the home side. You could see it. They were winded.

Having anticipated a day-off on Sunday, most of the game’s local cognoscenti are now bristling with excitement about the possibilities on Sunday’s fourth day. Everything is possible. Quick finish, late finish, even an extension to the fifth morning. Both teams can win, a draw virtually impossible. Maybe a tie. Ha!

    Pleased to report that the travelling supporters enjoyed the option of a vast chicken Breyani today, reportedly ‘delicious and good value,’ along with some fresh cooked samosas, ‘tasty but a bit spicy.’ No change on the drinking water and sun-cream embargoes, but one step at a time.