Pope’s knock, Hartley’s spell or self-destruction? Where India lost first Test | Cricket

India will look back at the first Test and wonder when they allowed it to get away from them. Head coach Rahul Dravid insisted they should have put the game to bed in the first innings which, according to him, his wards finished 70 runs light. But even so, having piled up 436, they enjoyed a lead of 190, often decisive in this part of the world.

Was it on days three and four, when Ollie Pope constructed one of the great innings on Indian soil but with no little assistance from India’s ragged spinners, that the tide turned? India did allow England to escape from 163 for five and power away unchallenged and untroubled to 420, an advantage of 230.

Or was it in the final four hours on Sunday, the scheduled fourth day at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad? Perhaps it’s in that basket that most eggs will be placed, India’s latest setback against the turning ball an extension of their recent travails at home, a legacy of opting to play on ‘challenging tracks’ – Dravid’s words – in their own backyard.

There was a time when India would have knocked off 231 against an attack of this nature without batting an eyelid. Let’s clarify ‘an attack of this nature’.

Going against their natural grain and their previous sorties to India, England picked three specialist spinners – as well as the better-than-part-time off-spinner Joe Root – and only one specialist quick in Mark Wood, convinced that combination gave them their best chance of success. Of those three full-time spinners, Jack Leach, the only specialist bowler in this XI to have played in India previously, sustained a knock while fielding on day two and was reduced to a fringe performer, his effectiveness blunted by the injury. Rehan Ahmed, the leg-spinner, had just one Test cap against his name, left-arm spinner Tom Hartley was making debut. 231? Walk in the park, right? Think again.

Let’s face it, India should not have been chasing 231. Had, like Dravid said, they had got to 500 in the first dig, they might not have had to bat again at all; after all, their lead would have been more than 250. Had their execution with the ball been better, Pope would not have been given the license to breeze to 196, an admittedly stunning masterpiece full of sweeps and reverse sweeps, and England to 420 – only the ninth instance of a touring team scoring more than 400 in its second innings of a Test in India.

But 231 wasn’t beyond the reach of a group that batted deep – of the top nine, seven had at least one Test century. Beyond Yashasvi Jaiswal, the opener in his fifth game, the other six had at least two hundreds. Despite missing Virat Kohli, there was a wealth of experience and quality in the ranks. Why should 231 not be gettable?

Here’s why. Because England’s bowlers were accurate and disciplined enough to keep landing the ball in parts that asked the most demanding questions. Because, aware of their limitations, they stuck to their strengths, not allowing themselves to get carried away. Because they were smart and patient, because Ben Stokes set excellent fields, because they believed.

India, on the other hand, hoped. Or maybe feared, it’s hard to say. After a promising start that yielded 42 between Jaiswal and skipper Rohit Sharma, the nerves should have settled. But Jaiswal and Shubman Gill, searching for meaningful runs since dropping down to No. 3, perished to Hartley in the space of three deliveries, and the cat was amongst the pigeons.

Rohit battled on, but so on-target were the English bowlers – unlike India’s more celebrated tweakers – that every ball was an examination. India did show smarts by promoting Axar Patel to No. 5 to throw a left-hander in the mix and that seemed to work for a while as he and KL Rahul were untroubled, but this was the kind of track where it was essential to keep a new batter from having to take guard.

India surrendered the game in a 65-ball spell soon after tea, losing four for 24 to go from 95 for three to 119 for seven. Among those dismissals was the needless run out of Ravindra Jadeja, who also did his left hamstring in the process. Like rabbits transfixed by headlights, India were mentally static, their footwork as addled as their thinking. KS Bharat and R Ashwin showed during their half-century stand that even on day four, there were runs to be had. Sadly, that came too late in the day for their more illustrious batting colleagues to emulate.