Ollie Pope sweeps England back in the game
Notes on Bazball, Jasprit Bumrah, and getting out leaving the ball to spin in India
England bowled as well today as Jeetan Patel pretended they did yesterday. Then they pressed the Bazball button and played some of the weirdest cricket we have seen. A friend of mine said it was like watching shellfish batting. They were sweeping, mostly the reverse, like someone who can only play that shot on the computer game, so they spam it.
Then Bumrah came on and swung the ball around like the vicious genius he is, briefly ending England’s brief feeling of parity. But Ollie Pope’s shellfish batting became much more refined and easily his greatest hundred followed with some cameo support from Ben Foakes. A ball change happened and the harder ball ran along the ground to stop the pairing. But the damage to India was done. England now have a chance of winning this game.
It is still India’s game to lose, but there is no reason for England to bullshit about playing well today, because it actually happened.
We have a day four, where both teams could win. Who would have thought that?
Bazball works in India (JK)
Ollie Pope made his hundred with a strike rate of 66. It isn’t slow, but he certainly wasn’t bashing the ball everywhere. He got a little quicker after, but he didn’t go full turbo.
But early on, he did. And so did England. They were scoring at near a run a ball, Ashwin looked flustered, Jadeja couldn’t work out what to bowl, Axar was toothless, and India started to get ragged in the field. India were massively in front at this point, but it didn’t always look that way.
Afterwards, England slowed down, but that is because the ball got soft, and India had the field out. If it wasn’t for Bumrah’s spell, it would have been really interesting. But as a concept, this method worked. The pitch slowing down, and the ball getting soft all played a part. However, as great as this Indian attack is, they flinched in decent conditions to Crawley, Duckett and Pope, who are probably England’s worst three players of spin in Asia.
The fact England played smart afterwards, even though India got back on top in the middle session. But this all gave England a lot of time, and a soft ball. So they could work their way back in after tea.
The real success here was just making India flinch. After two days, almost nothing England had tried had worked, this has. It doesn’t mean they will win this Test, let alone the series.
But unlike on the first two days, when their positivity sounded hollow and full of nonsense, today there was something real attached.
Ollie Pope rescues England (JK)
Ollie Pope’s batting was grotesque at times. My favourite shot was when he turned to do a reverse, and then walked down the wicket as well. A walking reverse is the most Bazball shot ever. That was just nuts, but he also knew that he had to do something to change the victim narrative. And while he played the reverse poorly, he played it a lot, it didn’t give him many runs, but it changed the field, which is the point of it.
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