MSD & Co plumb to fresh depths at The Oval

LONDON: India reserved their worst for the last as MS Dhoni's 'young brigade' sank to a new low at The Oval on Sunday. It was a shameful exhibition of "gully" cricket in the game's purest format as one Indian batsman after another made guest appearances at the crease only to be sent back with in minutes by a determined and disciplined English pace attack. Led by James Anderson, they kept the ball up and probed outside the off-stump.India's shambolic resistance that lasted just two hours and 23 minutes, would have ended earlier but for a rain interruption that ate up 50 minutes of play time in spite of the umpires calling for an early lunch.
Needing to score 338 runs in order make England bat again, India were bowled out for 94 in just 29.2 overs to go down by an innings and 244 runs in the final Test with well over two days to spare. India's third defeat in a row allowed England to bounce back from 0-1 down, following the defeat at Lord's, to win the five-Test series 3-1 and retain the Pataudi Trophy.
Dhoni's pre-match assertions proved to be untrue as Team India messed up once again in all three departments of the game. The batting in both innings was pathetic, the bowling painfully pedestrian and ground fielding and catching downright rustic. To top it all, Dhoni's wicketkeeping and leadership skills fell well-below the desired level even though he did appear to have improved as a Test batsman.
With India's next foreign assignment being four stern Tests in Australia at the end of the year, questions are being asked about the process itself that Dhoni and coach Duncan Fletcher would have us believe is more important than the result. The final outcome could not have been any worse for a team that has forgotten how to win abroad.
The fact that India could not captalise on their surprise victory at the Lord's only showed the lack of self-confidence among the best young talents in the country against the swinging ball. It was little wonder, therefore, that England's James Anderson was named the Man of the Series. The temperamental swing bowler, who finished with 25 wickets in the series, is now just four short of surpassing Ian Botham's tally of 383 Test wickets and 20 shy of becoming the first England bowler to claim 400 Test victims.
Quite justifiably too, young Joe Root was declared the Man of the Match for his splendid unbeaten 149. It was primarily because of his turbo charged knock that England, resuming on 3857 on Sunday were able to gallop to 486 before the end came. India's bowling was stripped of the last shred dignity with their wayward bowlers conceding 101 runs in just 10.3 overs on Sunday morning.
Root, who was unbeaten on 92, got to his second century of the series in no time. Even though Ishant Sharma got rid of Chris Jordan early, Root got a lot of support from Stuart Broad. The duo added 63 runs for the ninth wicket runs came in a torrent. Root got a second 'life' when he played on to Ishant, who was to Ishant, who was found guilty of over-stepping.
The Indian parade started soon after.
Murali Vijay, who has looked to leave everything outside his off-stump right through the series, was beaten by an in-swinger from Anderson that trapped him in front. Gautam Gambhir, who was like a cat on a hot tin roof, saw his miserable comeback end in a run out after he was sent back by Cheteshwar Pujara, who had first responded to his call for a single. Rains intervened at this stage but there was no change in the script after resumption of play.
With Pujara himself offering the thinnest of edges to Jos Buttler off Anderson and Gary Ballance at third slip pulling off a stunning left-handed catch to send Ajinkya Rahane on his way, India slipped to 445 in quick time. Dhoni's second-innings jinx continued when he nicked Chris Woakes to Sam Robson and when Virat Kohli nicked Jordan to Cook at first slip, it was all over bar the shouting. Jordan's fourwicket burst in 19 balls sealed victory.