Axar Patel removed opener Dom Sibley for 2 in his first over on Day 1. – Sportzpics
Hello and welcome to Sportstars LIVE coverage of Day 1 of the fourth Test between India and England at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
England to 10/1 after 6 overs: Axar to Sibley. OUT! First over and bang! Then comes this dreaded straight line and it smashes Sibley’s stumps. Sibley anticipates the turn to him and plays down the wrong line while Axar’s spoon takes the inside edge onto the stumps. Dom Sibley b Patel 2 (8b)
England 10/0 after 5 overs: A massive move for Ishant! Sibley opts for an old-fashioned vacation, but Ishant brings in one sharp that misses the point just inches. The openers fought off a serious threat from the Indian Pacers early on.
England 6/0 after 2 overs: A good start for Siraj as he almost knocks Sibley down. Siraj put on his outswinger when he hit the outside edge of Sibley with a stunner outside the off-stump.
England 0/0 after 1 over: Ishant to Crawley. Ishant hits the pads and there’s a flashback to the second ball! Referee Nitin Menon is not shaken and Ishant calls on his captain to conduct the review. Kohli does it and the repetitions show that the ball clearly missed the stump. Excellent decision by the umpire on the field as India lose their first evaluation. Ishant managed to cut the ball sharply here early on and Crawley is off to an awkward start.
We’re almost there! England openers Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley open the innings for England while India takes the field. Ishant Sharma with the new ball
A cautious England beats hard for the last test, while India doesn’t do much tinkering. Umesh’s astonishing numbers are insufficient at the moment when Mohammed Sirah piped him for a place in the XI.
England XI: Dom Sibley, Zak Crawley, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root (c), Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, Dan Lawrence, Ben Foakes (week), Jack Leach, James Anderson, Dom Bess
India XI: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Siraj
England is warming up, India has field exercises at #Motera before the litter #INDvENG @sportstarweb @TheHinduSports pic.twitter.com/OFRgxaup9Y – Amol Karhadkar (@karhacter) March 4, 2021
England is warming up, India has field practice at #Motera before the throw #INDvENG @sportstarweb @TheHinduSports pic.twitter.com/OFRgxaup9Y
Most runs: Joe Root – 333 (6 innings), Rohit Sharma – 296 (6 innings), R Ashwin – 176 (5 innings), Virat Kohli – 172 (5 innings)
Most wickets: R Ashwin – 24 (3 games), Axar Patel – 18 (2 games), Jack Leach – 16 (3 games)
30 minutes from Toss. With the pitch touted to be playing on lines similar to the previous test, Joe Root will be in a difficult position. In the meantime, India will compete between Umesh / Siraj and Kuldeep / Sundar.
One last stretch | Joe Root will lead England in his 50th Test as captain in the final game of the series. – Sportzpics
One last stretch | Joe Root will lead England in his 50th Test as captain in the final game of the series. – Sportzpics
Rohit Sharma is 19 runs away from becoming the first opener and the second Indian to have 1000 runs in the World Testing Championship. Rohit could also become the fastest Asian opener for 1000 test runs.
James Anderson is currently on 898 international wickets. He’s two scalps away from being the third fast bowler to bag 900 wickets after Wasim Akram and Glenn McGrath. The seasoned bowler will be the sixth overall winner.
Virat Kohli will equate MS Dhoni in most test matches on Thursday – 60 in the lead in India.
Kohli needs 17 runs to be third after Ricky Ponting and Graeme Smith Become a captain and collect 12,000 international runs.
England and India have had their share of ups and downs over the course of this enticing four game series. Individual brilliance surpassed the contrasts in order to bring the respective sides to the fore several times. From Joe Root’s double hundred and Jack Leach’s improving numbers on the subcontinent to Rohit Sharma’s commanding art of punching alongside Ravi Ashwin and Axar Patel’s sheer brilliance with the ball – the series has it all. However, one element has taken the spotlight away by compromising the overall quality on display.
The pitches in Chennai and Ahmedabad were criticized from various quarters when they reached the crescendo in the two-day Pink Ball Test affair last week . Take all the noise away and we have a story of yet another fight by the Indian team when the chips were down.
Joe Root and England are themselves to blame after their rotation policies dwarfed their best XI for the conditions Has. Obviously, the batsmen were expecting an unplayable bowl of dust and rather fell into the rut of clinical precision of Axar Patel and the ruse of Ravichandran Ashwin, while the Indian pacemakers took a chill pill.
Thursday would not be for Root and his men different as they have to lay the foundations to stay in the game and stun the hosts with another fight to close the path to the World Test Final.
While India envision another blow against England a valiant draw would be the last resort to save qualification for the opening finals. The visitor is supported by arch rivals Australia for defeating India. A win in England could mean Australia qualify for the final of the Test World Cup in July. As always, a lot is at stake for a competition in white.
« There is always too much noise and too much talk about spin tracks. I’m sure if our media is able to contradict those views or not Presenting views that say it is unfair to criticize only spin tracks then it will be balanced conversation. But the unfortunate thing is that everyone is playing with this narrative (spinning tracks) and keeping it up to date for so long brings it until it is relevant. And then a test game happens, if you win on day 4 or 5, nobody says anything else than if it’s finished in two days, everyone rushes to the same topic, « says Virat Kohli of the unjustified Spinning pitches criticism.
« If you’re not getting runs as a batters, you’ll always look to yourself and find ways to improve – we definitely did. We looked at our layoffs and how we Build large partnerships and achieve some significant ones. » scores if there is a similar finish this time, « said Joe Root of the importance of building partnerships to get England back on track.
India: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill , Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (Vice-Captain), KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R. Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj
England: Joe Root (Capt.), Rory Burns, Dom Sibley, Zak Crawley, Dan Lawrence, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, Ben Foakes (week) Dom Bess, Jack Leach, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Jofra Archer, Olly Stone, Mark Wood Referees on the field: Nitin Menon and Virender Sharma; Third Referee: Anil Chaudhary; Fourth Referee: Shamshuddin; Referee: Javagal Srinath.
Hours of Operation: 9.30am to 11.30pm; 12.10pm to 2.10 p.m.; 2.30 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. (can be extended to 5 p.m.)
Ref: https://sportstar.thehindu.com
