England Edge Out Day Four
19 year old debutant Haseeb Hameed was the man of the moment as England closed the penultimate day of the first test 114-0, leading by 163 runs after Adil Rashid took 4-114 as England were able to bowl out India for 488. The match situation is now firmly in England's favour, and they'll look to reach a 300 run lead by lunch tomorrow and give themselves two sessions to bowl India out, with the pitch beginning to really break up.
And the fact that there was a lot of turn available for India's spinners, particularly Mishra the leg-spinner, who will have been licking his lips at the sight of Adil Rashid wreaking havoc against India's lower order, makes England's reply all the more impressive, and also makes Kohli's decision not to bowl Mishra until the 27th over, with Jadeja and Ashwin struggling, seem all the more strange.
Because the ball was turning for leg-spinner Rashid as he removed Kohli for 40 (bizarrely hitting his own wicket, you don't see that very often), before getting Jadeja caught at short leg and prising out Yadav, after Ansari got rid of Rahane. England would have been in an even better position, as they got off to a good start and consistently chipped away at India, but for the excellent innings of impressive all-rounder Ashwin, whose excellent 70 stretched India's innings and got them within 50 of their opponents. But once he was removed by Moeen just before tea it looked as if England would face a trial by spin, with recent collapses fresh in the mind.
Enter Hameed, whose composure, judgement and temperament showed that he has the makings of a class test match batsman. He looked solid as a rock, leaving, blocking and attacking exactly when he needed to, and even the scariest moment of his innings, when Kohli reviewed a Not Out LBW decision against him on 48, showed that he knew exactly what he was doing, padding away the ball which was shown to be miles outside off-stump, making India's review look foolish.
But Hameed has more than just the technique and mental abilities to open the batting, as he also played plenty of truly sumptuous shots, including a slap over long off to bring up a maximum against Jadeja in just the sixth over. Hameed's innings was one of total control over the opposition, as at almost no point did any of the bowlers get on top of him. Hameed played at his own pace, scored reasonably quickly at points whilst taking no chances at others, and he was peerless out there in the evening session. Alistair Cook has been waiting a long time for an opening partner that can build an innings alongside him, but based on this evidence, he may well have found one. Hameed closed the day 62* with Cook 46* and the youngster has a real shot of making a debut century tomorrow, which would make him the first teenager to score a century for England, and the first man to score a century on debut for England since Jonathon Trott in 2009.
Now is not the time to get carried away, as Cook has had ten opening partners in the four years since Andrew Strauss retired, but Hameed looks every inch a test match opening batsman and certainly looks the most impressive option to replace Strauss that we've seen. It's way too early to draw parallels between him and Joe Root, who also debuted impressively in India in 2012, or even with Cook himself, who scored a hundred on debut in India a decade ago, but if Hameed can continue in this vein tomorrow, and all series, then England could have a serious player on their hands.
As for the match, Hameed is just a subplot, and the real battle tomorrow will be how impressive Rashid and England's other spinners are on a turning pitch, with maybe 50 overs to bowl India out on their own soil. You would have to say that given the lack of anything from the pitch in the first three and a half days, the pitch tomorrow is unlikely to be unplayable, but with pressure on and if England bowl well, they can't rule out winning the game. But, more importantly, Hameed and Cook have again batted India out of the match, when a couple of early wickets would have put the pressure back on the visitors.
It's going to be a belting final day.
Southgate's England Walk Over Scots
So, in a thoroughly predictable plot twist, England beat Scotland comfortably whilst still playing the same level of dull, dreary, negative football that has plagued us for the last four years minimum and has reached a peak in 2016. The fact that England were able to win 3-0, with Adam Lallana impressing and the other goals coming from Daniel Sturridge and Gary Cahill, all three goals headers off crosses, is more down to how utterly average Scotland played, rather than anything exceptional on England's part. Scotland missed several key chances at 1-0, and conceding three headers, one cross from each fullback and a header from a corner really isn't good enough.
But from England's perspective there are plenty of positives to take forward. First and foremost the result itself, as a 3-0 home win is never a bad result, taking England onto ten points, and keeping them two points clear at the top of Group F, a full six points clear of a Scotland side that are a million miles away from actually challenging. A clean sheet, England's fourth in this group is also a bonus, although there were signs that a team with more attacking talent at their disposal than Scotland could have caused England problems. Moreover, the two fullbacks, Rose and Walker, were impressive, both grabbing assists, and both marauding dangerously at times.
The biggest positive remains the impressive return to form of Adam Lallana who has had a phenomenal year. After an excellent back half of the 15-16 season, Lallana was one of England's best players at the Euros and has been an integral part of Liverpool's excellent form this season, not to mention scoring his first two England goals to secure crucial points in their qualifiers. But England shouldn't be forcing their most creative and dangerous player to be playing out wide, particularly as they have other quality wide options available and with Dele Alli not fit. Lallana's influence on the game was overall very positive, but could have been better if he'd had more chance to influence the play.
Moreover, despite dominating possession, England ended up having less shots than Scotland, who probably should have equalised before Lallana's header put the game to bed just after half time. England will not look back at this game as a vintage performance, and any signs that they are massively improving under Southgate are mostly due to factors out of his control. I like Southgate, as I've said before, but as I've also said, I do not think that he has what it takes to move this England team forwards. If we take a comfortable yet unimpressive win against a rank average Scotland side as the benchmark for what's good enough to earn you the permanent job, then there are very few managers who wouldn't have been able to send out what was a reasonably strong England team and win this game.
It remains to be seen whether Southgate gets the top job, and it remains very unclear whether England are heading in the right direction, or simply stagnating, but a 3-0 win is a 3-0 win and it's hard to be too churlish about that.
The Hard and Fast Section
- NORTHERN IRELAND! They beat Azerbaijan 4-0 and I'm loving it.
- Oh Australia. 85 all out on their own soil. Shambles.
- England's women butchered Sri Lanka by 122 runs. Lovely stuff.
- Scotland drew with New Zealand 18-18. Shame it was league.
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