Our Bureau
Leeds
England have drawn the first blood in the Anderson Tendulkar Trophy as they have defeated India in the first test of the series at Headingley. They defeated India by 5 wickets on the back of a remarkable century by Ben Ducket who was awarded the Man of the Match award.
India seemed to be on the driving seat in the majority of this match but in the end their bowling attack seemed to lack the firepower to get rid of the English batters. The pace attack bowled well in patches but couldn’t manage to break partnership allowing England to snatch the game.
England won the toss and asked India to bat first, a decision that looked like it wasn’t the right one when the match started. Indian batters were playing flawlessly as Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul gave India a magnificent start.
Along with them the newly anointed Captain and Vice-captain of the team, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant stitched up a beautiful partnership of 209 runs. But the lower order didn’t capitalise on the start given by the top order and were dismissed for mere 41 runs and India ended up with a total of 471.
The English batters however didn’t back down from the total and batted beautifully. Ollie Pope smashed a brilliant hundred alongside Harry Brook who missed out on a ton by just a run. England’s lower order chipped in with handy runs before they were dismissed for 465. Jasprit Bumrah was the star of the bowling lineup picking up 5 wickets while Prasidh Krishna picked up 3 wickets despite being a bit expensive.
In the second innings, two of the most experienced batsmen for India, Rahul and Pant stepped up scoring terrific hundreds. This was the first instance in the 93 year history of Indian cricket that 5 centuries were scored in a single match. But despite their stellar efforts India’s lower order crumbled once again as Josh Tongue picked 3 wickets in an over. India’ last 6 wickets were dismissed for a mere 31 runs and India posted a target of 371 for the home side.
When the English batters came to bat they hardly put a wrong foot as the openers stitched a 188-run opening stand giving them a strong start. The home side hardly looked in trouble as they cruise past India’s total with Ducket’s ton and half centuries from Zack Crawley and Joe Root.
India will look to bounce back in the second match that will start from 8th July in Birmingham. The team will have a lot of questions on their pace attack which looked blunt from time to time and seemed overly dependent of Bumrah.
