Ind vs Ban 1st Test Summary
India wins another test match at home. This time against a team that bothered India in the last outing with its brilliant spin attack in conditions that were conducive to spin bowling. The match happened on a track that has traditionally been a haven for spin bowling but in this match in the first two innings, pacers dominated the attack. In the first innings (Ban bowling), 9 wickets were taken by pacers; and in the second (Ind bowling), pacers grabbed 8 wickets. In the third innings (Ban bowling), not many wickets fell. In the final innings (Ind bowling), spinners took 9 wickets. One was taken by Bumrah.
Test matches are won by bowling attacks and the measure of a bowling attack is the number of false shots it is able to induce. The BCCI publishes this data on its website. They give two variables that help us determine if a ball was under control of the batter or not. If a shot is played and it is either ‘Edged’ or ‘Missed’ then I am marking that ball as ‘not in control’. There are two other possibilities - ‘in control’ and ‘left’. ‘Left’ is when the batter has not attempted to play a shot (either defensive or attacking). The graph below shows how each inning proceeded in terms of %balls that were not in control (nic), in control (c), or left (left) in 10 over intervals.
1st innings (India batting, 376 all out in 91 overs) -
The 1st innings started with a bang for Bangladesh bowlers. Indian batters were lucky to lose only 3 wickets in the first 10 overs. Before reaching the tail, Bangladesh never recovered the same form. Hasan Mahmud was consistent throughout and Nahid Rana bowled a few decent overs but the spinners let Bangladesh down. They not only went for runs but also did not induce enough chances as is evident from the control graph below -
Mominul Haque bowled only one over so his contribution doesn’t count. Shakib and Mehidy were completely out of touch. The pacers Hasan Mahmud and Taskin Ahmed bowled well. But they were nothing compared to how Indian pacers bowled.
2nd innings (Bangladesh batting, 149 all out in 47 overs) -
This is how good India were with the ball. There was a minor slump of 10 overs where the batters brought things a little bit under control (between 21 to 30 overs). This was the period in which Ashwin and Jadeja bowled. But as soon as the pacers were brought back, Bangladesh started losing control again. Indian pacers bowled much better than Indian spinners in the first innings as is evident below -
Ashwin was not up to the mark while Jadeja tried to salvage as much as possible from the conditions. Bangladesh did not even come close to this attack but if one sees what happened in the third innings, the weakness of Bangladesh attack gets further exposed. With the moisture almost dried up, the Chepauk pitch did not offer as much to the pacers as it did in the first innings.
3rd innings (India batting 287/4dec, in 64 overs) -
This is the innings where Bangladesh lost the plot. There was some jeopardy induced here and there but it was nowhere close to being lethal. There were phases of 10 overs where not a single ‘not in control’ shot was played. Hasan Mahmud was still their best bowler but nowhere close to how he bowled in the first innings. Spinners let them down even more.
Did the conditions become worse for spinners? The way Indians spinners bowled in the final innings screams a big fat NO.
4th innings (Bangladesh batting 234 all out, in 62 overs) -
Though they conceded more runs, India bowled better than their first innings and this was mainly due to spinners joining the party. Jadeja kept doing what he does best and Ashwin found a way to induce way more false shots than his previous innings -
Despite not picking many wickets, the Indian pacers bowled like a dream. 23% of Akashdeep’s balls induced false shots.
This is what champion teams tend to do. The gap between their bowling widens as the match proceeds. The only chance Bangladesh had against India was to induce a collapse in the first few overs of the first innings and hope that the conditions remain conducive to pace bowling to hide their weak spin attack. But even then, they would have needed a lot of luck to go in their favour.
The next match is in Kanpur. It will be interesting to see what the conditions have to offer. Unless the conditions are extreme enough to bridge the gap between the bowling attacks, it is likely to be a walk in the garden for team India.