Disintegration - Day Four at Trent Bridge

For the second test running England took the final Indian wicket as I stood at Harlow Town station (it’s a glamorous life that I lead). I’m considering setting up camp there permanently during the Edgbaston test.

India’s wheels had threatened to come off since Matt Prior and Tim Bresnan started taking the long handle to the bowling on Sunday evening and today they did. With one or two honourable exceptions they were a shambles with bat, ball and in the field. Rarely, if ever, can such a highly ranked side have produced such an awful day’s cricket.

Prior and Bresnan carried on where they had left off but Prior’s early dismissal, which could have provided some vain hope for the Indians, simply brought the startlingly belligerent Stuart Broad to the crease and he and Bresnan laid about them as the bowling and fielding became more insipid. Suresh Raina might as well have waved a white flag as he propelled the ball to the other end such was his ineffectiveness.

Broad was run out by the sub fielder (it was to be a good day for substitutes) and Bresnan fell next ball for his second score in the nineties in seven test innings. Many may have expected Strauss to declare, but he wanted to keep India on the field for as long as possible to completely demoralise them. Steve Waugh would have been proud of him.

India would have wanted to survive until lunch and then re-group but, after Mukund was reprieved by Tim Bresnan at slip first ball, Dravid edged Stuart Broad behind to complete a miserable session for the Indians and their millions of supporters.

What followed will give Duncan Fletcher sleepless nights for weeks to come. Laxman was beaten by a beauty from Anderson and Tendulkar stood firm, but the rest of the batting capitulated to relentless fast bowling. Mukund, his fluent 49 at Lord’s a distant memory, scratched his way to three from forty-one balls before falling to a well-directed bouncer, Raina, who clearly didn’t fancy the short stuff, hooked wildly to England’s sub and Yuvraj was pinned on the hand and then caught by Alastair Cook close in on the offside. I shudder to think how they would have coped with the 1980s West Indians.

MS Dhoni has won a lot of friends in this test but his cricket has been pretty awful. His keeping has gone into decline, his batting, especially against the moving ball, is technically lacking and his captaincy has been a little erratic. He will hope that his dismissal here, palpably leg before to a ball that he was leaving alone, represents the nadir of his tour.

Harbhajan at least provided some entertainment, although the freedom of his strokeplay raised doubts as to how bad his stomach injury actually is, and when Tendulkar, who had made batting look rather easier than his colleagues, also fell offering no stroke, Praveen Kumar also enjoyed himself, thumping a rapid twenty-five.

It wasn’t going to last, however, and when Harbhajan fell to another catch by the sub the writing was on the wall. Praveen continued to blaze away merrily, but at about half past five on the fourth day India, batting on a pitch on which England had scored 544 at four and a half an over, were bowled out for 158.

It has been an extraordinary test, not least because India looked the likelier winners for much of the first two days, but MS Dhoni, Duncan Fletcher et al must be very concerned at the manner of the defeat. They can point to injuries, but England were without Chris Tremlett and lost Jonathan Trott for much of the test. All sides suffer from injuries from time to time – what matters is how you respond and the performances of England’s stand-ins, Tim Bresnan scoring over a hundred runs in the match and taking seven wickets including a five for and Ian Bell making 159 batting out of position were in stark contrast to their counterparts. If India don’t get their act together, starting at Northampton, then it could be a very long series for them.

England, though, were superb on days three and four. Rahul Dravid made the observation that they just keep coming at the opposition and they are blessed not just with a superb bowling attack but also with a magnificent lower order. The best may yet be to come.