‘Pressure was relentless’

India skipper Virat Kohli says England’s disciplined bowling attack caused the batting to crumble as hosts register thumping victory at Headingley to level series 1-1

Pacer Ollie Robinson engineered a middle-order collapse with the second new ball as England completed a facile innings and 76-run victory against India on the fourth day of the third Test, here on Saturday.

All the good work on Friday, when India reached 215 for two at stumps, was completely undone as Robinson (5-65) and James Anderson (1-63) hit the right lengths and got movement off the pitch to wrap up the Indian innings in a jiffy. India were all out for 278 in the morning session.

It was a match that England won by executing their strategies to perfection with an idea of the opposition’s soft underbellies.

Second fifer for Robinson

It was Robinson’s second five-for in the series and the tall seamer, after a difficult initiation to Test cricket due to off-field controversies, is proving to be an asset for this team. Robinson had served an unconditional apology after his racist tweets surfaced on the day of his Test debut against New Zealand in June.

India had lost the match on the first day itself when they were bowled out for 78 as it meant that they were always playing a catching up game in this Test match. India skipper Virat Kohli said it was high quality bowling from England that forced mistakes from the visiting batsmen. 

‘It’s bizarre’

“It’s quite bizarre, it [batting collapses] can happen in this country. We thought the pitch was good to bat on [with the ball] coming on nicely. But the discipline forced mistakes and the pressure was relentless. It is difficult to cope when you’re not scoring runs. That caused the batting order to crumble,” he said.

Kohli acknowledged the scoreboard pressure after England took a huge first innings lead of 354. “[You are] always up against it when you get out for under 80, and the opposition puts up such a big score. But we did well to stay in the game yesterday [on Friday], fight back as much as we could, and gave ourselves a chance.

“But the pressure today was outstanding from the England bowlers and eventually they got the results they wanted.”

It was an improbable task to bat out three days in conditions which can change rapidly to make batting difficult. The middle-order, which looked solid on Friday, was completely rattled on the penultimate morning under bright sunshine as most of the batsmen didn’t know where their off-stump was, which was baffling if one takes the third day’s performance into consideration.

Dramatic collapse

India lost eight wickets for the addition of only 63 runs and memories of a morning collapse in Adelaide once again became fresh as good balls found their way either into the gloves or hands of the slip fielders. It started with Pujara (91) misjudging the length of Robinson’s in-cutter which he perhaps thought would fly over the stumps as he decided not to offer a shot.

Kohli again looked circumspect as he played and missed a few and survived a caught behind chance. But Robinson‘s nicely-pitched up delivery that was slightly angled in, saw  Kohli jabbing at it. 

Brief scores
India 78 & 278 (C Pujara 91, R Sharma 59, V Kohli 55; O Robinson 5-65, C Overton 3-47) lost to England 432 by an innings and 76 runs

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