In Stats: What Cost India The Southampton Test

Here’s a look at the fourth Test between India and England through numbers.

At the end of it all, it is what goes down in the record books that matters. It is not about how much a team competed, or how much they made their opponents toil. In the context of India’s Test series in England in 2018, the records books will show that they lost the series.

The loss was confirmed on Sunday in Southampton when the Indian team failed to chase down a target of 245, falling short by 60 runs.

It was observed in our pre-match preview that Sam Curran and Moeen Ali posed as the biggest threats. As it transpired, it was that pair that caused much of the telling damage in the Southampton Test. Curran contributed with the bat in both the innings and picked up two important wickets, while Moeen Ali was England’s wrecker-in-chief with the ball.

Test matches are the ultimate contest because they’re not won on the back of individual performances or by winning moments, but through combined efforts of players and by building and sustaining pressure on the opposition. So where then did India lose the Southampton Test?

When England Were Batting

India had England on the mat at 86-6 in the first innings, but allowed the hosts to escape to what was always going to be a competitive first innings total of 246. The seventh wicket pair – featuring Curran and Moeen – added 81 runs, after which the ninth wicket pair of Curran and Stuart Broad added 63 runs.

In the second innings too, England were 178-6 – an effective lead of 151 – but were allowed to get as far as 271, setting India a fourth innings target of 245.

When India Were Batting

Even though the eventual result might show that India ran England close, the fact is that the middle order just did not do enough to give India a chance to win the Test. The captain Virat Kohli referred to it in the post-match presentation when he said there were no follow-up partnerships for India, and that meant the team was never really in the race.

The middle order is essentially the engine room of any team. Unfortunately for Team India, there was just one significant partnership in the middle order. Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane kept England at bay for a prolonged period of time in the second innings while adding 101 runs, but both innings put together – the rest of the middle and lower order partnerships only added up to 84 runs.

Where the Indian team also failed, was that they gave away 9 wickets to the off-spin of Moeen Ali, who now has the best figures by an England spinner against India in Tests at home. In contrast the two other front-line spinners on either side – Adil Rashid for India and Ravichandran Ashwin for India – could only pick up 3 wickets in the entire match.

One wouldn’t have a problem if Moeen Ali produced unplayable deliveries or earned wickets out of his own skill, but at the Rose Bowl, several Indian batsmen were guilty of not putting a higher price on their wickets. Think Hardik Pandya and Ravichandran Ashwin in the first innings, or Rishabh Pant in the second innings.

To deny James Anderson (the top-ranked Test bowler in the world) and Stuart Broad (the other most experienced bowler in the England ranks), and instead give away 9 wickets to someone who considers himself ‘a batsman who can bowl a bit’ is absolutely criminal.