England India Test Series
5th Test Played at Birmingham
India 1st Innings 416 All Out in 84.5 Overs (Rishabh Pant 146, Ravindra Jadeja 104, James Anderson 5/60, Matthew Potts 2/105)
India 2nd Innings 245 All Out in 81.5 Overs (Cheteswar Pujara 66, Rishabh Pant 57, Ben Stokes 4/33, Matthew Potts 2/50, James Anderson 2/50)
England 1st Innings 284 All Out in 61.3 Overs (Jonny Bairstow 106, Sam Billings 36, Joe Root 31, Mohammad Siraj 4/66, Jasprit Bumarh3/68, Mohammad Siraj 2/78)
England 2nd Innings 378 /3 in 76.4 Overs (Joe Root 142*, Jonny Bairstow 114 *, Alex Lees 56, Jack Crawley 46, Jasprit Bumrah 2/74)
England Won By 7 wickets
Five Test Series Result: 2-2 Draw
Player of the Match: Jonny Bairstow
Player of The Series: Joe Root
A fairytale test win of Ben Stokes led Brendon McCullam England rewrote few pages of cricket history. England shocked India winning the 5th test of COVID interrupted the series by 7 wickets in a most spectacular disco cricket fashion.
Conceding a first innings lead of 132 England bounced back restricting India to 245 in the second Innings. Yet it was daunting task chasing and overhauling a target of 378 in the fourth innings on a wearing pitch on day 4 and 5. Playing aggressively in T20 mode England brought the ship to the shore climbing the mountain in 76.4 Overs. Peerless Joe Root playing another classy Innings of unbeaten 146 and flamboyant Bairstow carrying his sizzling form of IPL white ball scoring his second century of the match won big for Englishmen.
England team was looking down the barrel in ICC Test Championship after suffering humiliating Ashes whitewash. They were by far the underdog against world test champions New Zealand. Joe Root was stripped off the leadership. Head Coach also changed. New Zealand born Ben Stokes took over from Root and Kiwi super star Brendon McCullam became new English coach. Change of guard turned England completely around. India was firmly placed in ICC Test Championship 2021-23 cycle. Now the ascendency of England threatens changing the balance.
Test cricket has been a dying art for the franchise cricket avalanche. England winning 4th test in succession under the new leadership is reviving the good old days of test cricket with the message that “Morning does not always show the day in test cricket.”
BDST: 1344 HRS, July 6, 2022
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