England redeemed themselves on the last two days of the test match against India following three poor days of cricket as the visitors thrashed the Indians by seven wickets in Birmingham, Edgbaston. The series was levelled by England with the dominating victory on day five of the rescheduled fifth test match.
Indian bowlers couldn’t answer the aggressive assault from former England skipper Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow, who stitched a match-winning partnership of 269* runs for the fourth wicket which turned the entire match upside down. The total of 378 runs looked below par against the England unit, that scored runs for fun against the Indian bowlers in the fourth innings of the test match.
Joe Root slammed 142* runs while Jonny Bairstow scored 114* and helped England go over the winning rope to level the five-match test series by 2-2.
After claiming an upper hand in the first three days, India let the game slip away from their grasp as their batters had no answers for the short ball trap fielded by the opposition during the third innings. The well-laid plot worked for England as they dismissed India to a scanty total of 245 runs in the third innings and the lead was blocked at 378 runs, which still was a good total to defend.
England openers Zak Crawley and Alex Lees opened their fire against the Indian bowlers and scored over 100 runs in just 20 overs. However, India got back on track after stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah scalped the wicket of Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope in quick succession. Alex Lees, who was timing the ball nicely, became the prey to an unfortunate mix up with Joe Root and had to lose his wicket.
However, the duo of Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow did all the work for their team as they never looked uncomfortable against the Indian bowlers.
“We [India] fell short with the bat yesterday and that is where we let the opposition in to let the match slip away from us. Ifs and buts can always be there,” said Jasprit Bumrah during the post-match presentation.
Had Indian batters played a little cautiously against the well-planned trap in the third innings, certainly, the result would have been something different.
Reacting to India's defeat in the rescheduled fifth Test former Indian chief coach Ravi Shastri said Team India's "timid" and "defensive" batting approach in their second innings allowed England to make a comeback on the fourth day. "I think (it was) disappointing, to say the least, because they could have batted England out of this contest," Shastri added.
