New Delhi: Slow and steady wins the race; the England team took it a couple of steps further in their second innings at Vizag as they went from slow to slower and then slowest but in the end lost the match by a huge margin of 246 runs.
Chasing a daunting target of 405, England openers batted 50.2 overs, the longest by any visiting opening pair in India, bettering the record of Mathew Hayden and Michael Slater in the famous 2001 series, when they batted for 23.2 overs. Hameed and Cook looked in no mood to take on the Indian bowlers as they took their own time to score 75 runs in 50 overs. But unfortunately their effort was of no good as England folded like 9 pins after their departure.
England could only manage 158 runs in 97.3 overs at a rate of 1.62 runs per over. Alastair Cook top scored with 54, though; there was very little intent of scoring from the England captain, as he laboriously reached his half century off 171 balls, his slowest ever.
England’s rear guard action reminded of the ‘blockathon’ by the South African team in New Delhi when they scored 143 runs in as many overs trying to save the Test match in the final innings. Though, their fate was the same as England’s.
Virat Kohli was quick to point out that the lack of intent shown by the English batsman actually helped India to always be in the game.
“We thought they would come out with more intent to be honest. And to see the approach that they had obviously gave us assurance that once we get a couple of wickets, it will crumble pretty quickly because there wasn't much intent from the batsmen," said Kohli.