England’s 28-run victory at the Rajiv Ghandi Stadium in Hyderabad on a floodlit Sunday evening at the back end of the ‘extra half hour’ was all a bit surreal at the time. It was clearly an extraordinary Test match, with even more remarkable individual performances, but… just how unusual were they?
Ollie Pope’s 196 was spell-binding. For a long-time it looked cheeky and risky in equal measure, like a juggling act with champagne glasses which might end in tears and a mess at any time. But it was still going after two hours, and three. And then five, and six.
“I have never seen a better exhibition of sweeping and reverse-sweeping in these conditions,” said India’s head coach, Rahul Dravid, not given to ever playing a rash shot during a distinguished career and equally unlikely to overstate anything in his current role. So let’s just read that again: “…never seen a better exhibition…”
“That was a one of a kind, generational innings,” said Joe Root afterwards. “Better than any innings I’ve ever played here.” Yes, Joe, of course you’d say that. That’s just you being you. Ben Stokes would provide some perspective.
“That’s the greatest innings that’s ever been played by an English batter in the subcontinent,” said Stokes. Right then. So, it really was that special. It looked that way from the commentary box, and sometimes the view from the field can be overly biased, but they concurred on this occasion.
A small minority of batters enjoy or tolerate the luxury, or burden, of a ‘career-defining’ innings, a display so exceptional and memorable that their entire careers will be remembered for it. Graham Gooch had two – 333 and 154. You’ll know them. Michael Atherton’s epic 185* from 492 balls to save the Wanderers Test against South Africa in 1995… you know the sort of thing. Now Pope has his.
My dear friend and co-commentator, Steve Harmison, was animatedly critical of the England team’s preparation plans for the series which saw them spend nine days in Abu Dhabi and only arrive in Hyderabad three days before the first Test. Last night, in the early hours of the victory celebration, he received an invitation to join them.
“After a win like that, the history, the emotion, you would have forgiven them for having a really big night out,” Harmy said. “But it wasn’t like that. Of course the lads had a beer or a glass of wine, played a game of darts and relaxed, but it would have been a lot wilder in my day if we’d ever won a Test match like that! They celebrated, but they definitely still had an eye on the next game,” Harmy said.
The big man and I headed off to see some of the sights of Hyderabad with my old friend, Ashok, to do a Following on podcast for TalkSport. First stop was the 108-foot statue of Dr. BR Ambedkar, an honoured son of Hyderabad and the author of the Indian Constitution which, it is famously said, took him two years, 11 months and 18 days to complete.
I suggested to Harmy that Doc Ambedkar had the perfect physique for a leg-spinner. Harmy said: “he must have been a batsman, to be clever enough to write a country’s Constitution.”
The news that KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja have both been ruled out of the second Test in Vishakapatnam reached us late in the day. With Virat Kohli and Mohammad Shami still unavailable, it presents an extraordinary opportunity for England…
As someone who may have witnessed all three, Neil, I'm wondering how you feel Pope's innings compared especially with Pietersen's in 2012 and Root's on the last tour?