TimesofIndia.com in Leeds: Head down, Shubman Gill started that walk back to the change room with his team right behind him. Jamie Smith had clobbered Ravindra Jadeja for a maximum to seal the record chase, and give high-flying England a 1-0 lead over India in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.Smith and Joe Root were greeted by their teammates with warm hugs and high-fives but there was disappointment written all over the visitors’ change room. The match was littered with moments where India could have landed the knockout blow but the inexperienced side failed to get over the line on the day where all three results were possible.Tension, drama, plenty of plays-and-misses and the sun kept playing hide and seek with the dark grey clouds until the last hour of Day 5 at Headingley. England were five down, needing 52 runs but the visitors kept coming hard at them, especially after the Ben Stokes wicket which lifted their spirits. There weren’t a lot of runs to play with but Shubman Gill & Co. operated with a lot of self-belief and waited for the miracle. Miracles the likes of a double-wicket over, a wicket-maiden or the big wicket of local hero Joe Root to put the hosts under the pump.In search of that moment, after an attempt with the combination of Prasidh Krishna and Ravindra Jadeja, Gill went back to Shardul Thakur – the man who brought them back into the game with the wickets of Ben Duckett and Harry Brook – but even he couldn’t do the ‘Lordly’ things the world is used to seeing when the ball is in his hand.
The stadium was nowhere close to a full house but the ones who braved the cold, chilly winds, rain and the infrequent sun were having the time of their life and found their voice when drama peaked in the business hour.Oohs, aahs, Jaiswal getting ironically cheered for fielding the ball cleanly – they were well warmed up in the stands as India desperately sought the miracle.Luck wasn’t going their way either. Edges would run between the slips, Root would continue doing Root things when on strike – solid, calm and composed. Bringing all his experience into play, the right-hander ensured he was calm in the eye of the storm. Jasprit Bumrah’s brief absence from the 67th over would have eased their nerves further as England, unlike their opponents, were not going to stage a lower-order collapse.The new ball was around the corner but Root got all his experience into play to up the tempo and ensure mere formalities were left when the shining red cherry became available again. Only 22 were left to be scored and Mohammed Siraj was handed over the new ball. There, however, was no late twist in store and the ending which was expected after that solid first session played out.Never has a side which scored five individual hundreds in the Test lost a game before India did in Leeds on Tuesday. Even after dominating for the majority of the Test, the visitors, in a comfortable position before Day 5 got underway, didn’t get the result in their favour. They had runs to play with, they had a Bumrah and support cast around him but England’s phased response, led by Ben Duckett, didn’t allow the opposition to make any inroads.
When the ball was still hard and new and the sky above continued to be dark and grey, both Duckett and Crawley frustrated India with a 188-run stand and the only way to stage a comeback at that point was going to be with wickets in a bunch. That didn’t happen and England kept the run-rate in check to further deflate the opposition. It was extremely difficult for Gill, on captaincy debut, to find that balance between defence and aggression as the hosts comfortably overhauled the target with five wickets in hand.There is still some time before the second Test gets underway in Birmingham and India need to regroup and re-strategise for that fixture. The right bowling combination is going to be key and they definitely need to find the answers for both life with and without Jasprit Bumrah.
