Monday 14 July 2014
England v India, 1st Investec Test, Trent Bridge, 5th day
India suffered a serious scare at the start of day 5 as England took 3 wickets for 17 runs in the 1st hour of the play. But Stuart Binny batted them to safety & was looked on course for a century on debut before Moeen Ali dismissed him LBW with 10 minutes to go for tea. B Kumar then scored his 2nd fifty of the match & England didn't get to begin a second innings as the players shook hands when MS Dhoni declared at the stroke of the final hour.
By then, Alastair Cook had provided the Trent Bridge crowd with 1 over of seemingly useless offspin & 1 over of gentle medium-pace, with which wrapped up Ishant Sharma caught behind down the leg side. Cook's Bob Willis impersonations summed up the Test match, during which it had become increasingly difficult to assess the 2 sets of players, on a surface with nothing in it for the bowlers. This test match will mostly be remembered for the lower-order batting records.
Binny showed his batting agility, but it can't be said that he completely justified his selection, it would be harsh to judge his seam bowling on this pitch. He might even find himself in the strange position of being left out of the team for the second Test after coming close to a century on debut and helping save a match from a wobbly position.
