The Cricket Gods of Leeds

England win another Test with another epic fourth innings run-chase

An epic Test match at a ground that has a long and proud history of serving them up. England chasing a target of 371 in the fourth innings and, despite the loss of two wickets in two balls, doing so at a canter for the loss of five wickets with over an hour to spare. How times have changed. Just a couple of decades ago a fourth innings target of 200+ had most observers wringing their hands and puffing their cheeks.

Headingley is a cricket micro-climate unto itself, attitude and weather both. At times on our commentary balcony we could see heavy rain falling on three sides of the ground but barely a drop on the cricket. “The cricket Gods come from Yorkshire originally, did you know that?” said Eric, on duty at the back entrance to the new pavilion – the media gate.

There were concerns, as usual, that the Leeds Indian community – many born and raised in the region – might give the Test a little too much of an ‘away fixture’ feel. Those concerns did not come from the ECB, of course, whose primary concern is to maximise revenue. Scheduling the third or fourth Test at Headingley, as is customary, would be to risk losing sell-outs. So, they started there.

In an ideal world there should never have been concerns in the first place, and they were happily misplaced. All but a handful of the supporters I spoke to wearing the blue replica shirts of India were very much integrated English but ‘supporting’ India in much the same way that many Premier League following South Africans support England at World Cups. They have favourite players and, for the white fans, often roots in their ‘mother’ nation.

On the field it truly was a mighty battle, defined not by the greatness of the players but by their similarities. Unlike the WTC final a week before, there was only one ‘great’ bowler on display and Jasprit Bumrah duly had his name inscribed on another Honours Board with his 12^th career 5-wicket haul. India had another five inscriptions on the batting Honours Board, Rishabh Pant twice, but became the first team in history to lose a Test having done so. It was also the 10^th highest match aggregate in Tests – most ending in draws on futile pitches. This one also yielded 35 of a potential 40 wickets.

On a different point of history, it was also the first time in the history of ‘cricket on the wireless’ that a second ball-by-ball service was available, from the ground, on a Test match in England. The BBC’s Test Match Special has enjoyed exclusivity from Day One.

TalkSPORT’s rights are limited to ‘online’ and are geo-blocked outside the UK and India but we received messages from listeners in an extraordinary 72 countries during the course of the five days. From the Antarctic to Lithuania, Peru to Somalia and Cape Verde to Tonga. I’m sure I have, at times, commentated to far larger audiences but never, ever to a more diverse range of the world’s corners. China, Lithuania, Chad and Crete. The Congo. I will publish the full list in my next post.

Edgbaston is a full seven days away, and they will feel far longer for India than England, and not just because they are the tourists. The hosts are considering Jofra Archer to (considerably) boost their pace attack while India have considerable wounds to either lick or ignore. From 430-3 on the second morning to 471 all out is a short journey of nightmares. The magnificent Siddarth Mongia, senior Cricinfo correspondent and now (thankfully) part-time TalkSPORT summariser, described India’s demise as the ‘loss of the unlosable Test.’

And the ball-by-ball commentary can be found on the TalkSPORT cricket YouTube channel. And you can always shout me a coffee, if you’re inclined… 😊