After putting up an impressive show at Trent Bridge in the 3rd Test, India suffers another defeat going down by 60 runs against England in the 4th Test at The Rose Bowl, Southampton and thus England have now taken a 3-1 unassailable lead in five-match test series. One of the reasons for the defeat was that the Indian Team (yet again) failed to seize the important moments when it mattered the most and thus lost the match and the Test series.
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| The Indian Cricket Team yet again fails to seize the opportunities |
It had happened in South Africa too and has now repeated itself in England too -- the Indian team letting things slip after having got into great positions in a match. In this series against England, India had got England down to 86/6 on the first day of the first Test at Edgbaston but thereafter they lost the plot. They could have still won the test match as they had 84 runs to score in the second innings with five wickets in hand at the end of the 3rd day's play. Yet the Indian team lost the match as the English bowlers could successfully etch out the remaining five wickets on the fourth day. A similar thing happened again in this particular Test match too - the English team were at one stage 86/6 in the 1st Innings but the Indian team couldn't seize the opportunity to restrict them to a paltry score.
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| The Indian Cricket Team yet again fails to seize the opportunities |
Chasing 245 runs in the second innings was always going to be tricky but still could have been achieved. The captain Virat Kohli scored a valiant 58 ably supported by his deputy Ajinkya Rahane, putting together a 101 runs partnership for the fourth wicket. But in the end, that wasn't enough as Kohli's wicket triggered a collapse and none of the other batters applied themselves as much, to take their side through. The remaining six batsmen were cleaned up for just 61 runs!
Of course it was off-spinner Moeen Ali who swung the match and thereby the test series in England's favour with a total of 9 wickets in the match. After taking a five-wicket haul in the first innings, Moeen clinched four more wickets in the second innings and so deservingly won the Man of the Match award. What's hard to digest, however, is the ineptitude of the Indian batsmen (barring Kohli) while facing Moeen Ali's off-spin, because they are believed to be good players of spin bowling. Most of them were playing from their crease instead of using their feet to get to the pitch of the ball. Too much of white ball cricket is surely ruining the batting techniques.
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| The Indian Cricket Team yet again fails to seize the opportunities |
