England and India's 'enthralling' 3rd Test analysed | What next after five dramatic days at Lord's?

0:01Nasser Hussain:Yeah, gone! Gone, he gets his fairytale ending! An epic way to go to a Test Match 100. The London Sphere, the first time win is the most remarkable thing you'll probably ever see in cricket. 604 and final Test wicket for Stuart Ball. It's India who will win the T20 World Cup. England's captain Ben Stokes, while he is there, England have hope.

0:32Welcome to Sky Sports Cricket Podcast. I'm Nasser Usain, as ever, joined by Michael Atherton. We're both on location at the moment. Ath, you're on your way back from a blast game. I'm up north. I'm in the Ribble Valley. Do you know where the Ribble Valley is?

0:48Nasser Hussain:I do. That's Andrew Flint off country. When you say we're on location, you mean I am working and you are on holiday. That's really what you mean. I am on my way up to walk the lakes. I stopped off in the Ribble Valley. I never even knew where the Ribble Valley was. Where Andrew Flynn talked from. I'll go and pop in and see, Freddie. Talking of which, Lancashire, you were at the Blast game, the Roses game last night, working. How did it go? What was the atmosphere like? A good win for your old boys. Yeah, it wasn't a bad evening, actually. There was about 15 ,000 on, so not quite, you know, rammed full, but pretty good crowd, especially given the fact that Yosha couldn't qualify.

1:29Nasser Hussain:They're kind of down near the bottom of that table, having only won four games, I think. And Lanks were pretty well. They needed a win from the last two games to qualify for the quarterfinal. So they got that win last night. So they're in the quarters. They've got a game today as well, I think. They've got a home quarterfinal because the other results went their way. So they've actually got a remarkably consistent record of getting through what is undoubtedly the stronger of the two groups, as you'll know. Not from what I've seen from the last 20 years or whatever. How was Jimmy Anderson? I saw him got a bit of a standing ovation for his batting arriving at Edingly.

2:10Nasser Hussain:He did, yeah. Langs have now got to the quarterfinals on the last eight consecutive years, and I think something like 18 out of 22. So pretty consistent record. But Jimmy, yeah, I mean, remarkable, really. He came out. Well, he batted, first of all. He came out to an unbelievable ovation and then was bowled, first or second ball and got a bigger ovation walking off. But then three for 20. Bowled superbly. Looks as fit as a fiddle. It's incredible, really. He looks super fit. And he got two wickets at the start in two overs. And then, or maybe, yeah, they brought him back for the key over. And they had to get rid of Abdullah Shafiq, who was playing really nicely.

2:53Nasser Hussain:And while he was there, Yorkshire pretty much in control. And Jimmy got him out. and then wickets tumbled and Langs won comfortably in the end. But yeah, remarkable really. He does look, he looks unbelievably fit for 43. I see he's also got a hundred wildcard. Him talking to Flintoff, Rocky Flintoff as well. Yeah, Rocky's. A hundred wildcards, what they were announced the other day. Rocky's going to the Northern Superchargers with his dad and Jimmy's got a gig. Yeah, and to be honest, watching him bowl yesterday, day. You'd want him in your team for any format, really. He still looks as good as ever.

3:31Nasser Hussain:So, it was good to see him. Anderson wants Anderson in the ashes. That's going to be our headline. We've had plenty of cricket. The women have played. They lost down at Southampton. Good game, that. India chasing down 2-5-8. Deepti Sharma and Jemima Rodrigues' partnership, which sets it up nicely for Lourdes on Saturday, tomorrow, because That's a rematch of that famous run out at the non-striker's end, Deep Dishama and Charlie Dean. Luckily, I'm not working on that. I'm on my holidays. I did that game, though. You didn't do that game, did you, the run out game? I did. I did. I was on commentary.

4:10I went, no. So that's the first time they're back at Lourdes playing against each other. So that should be interesting. And what did you make of one of your other favourite teams, the West Indies? 27 all out. I mean, they beat your 46 all out in Trinidad. I mean, incredible. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's a sad tale, isn't it, the West Indies?

4:34Nasser Hussain:We seem to have written it time and time and time again about the decline of not so much white ball cricket or T20 cricket, short form cricket there, but test cricket, which seems to me to be almost dead as a spectator sport there. when England go, it's only really numbers of England fans who travel for tests. Not that England are playing test cricket in the Caribbean. They don't play in the next Future Tours programme there. But yeah, it's a story written time and time again and doesn't seem to have any obvious or easy answers. I noticed they've called together a kind of meeting of their greats.

5:15Nasser Hussain:I'm not sure what that's going to achieve either. It's been so long, the decline in their red ball team. But, you know, it's the batting, isn't it? I mean, the bowling actually looks strong. They've got some wicket-taking bowlers, some aggressive wicket-taking bowlers. But Mitchell Stark with that pink ball, very tricky. I think it's related to pitches because those three pitches, I mean, you do want bowling to be slightly in favour, but they look too far in favour of the bowling attack. domestic cricket. And if you don't have good pitches, you don't produce good players who can play long innings.

5:55I mean, even some of that Australia batting line up top three, they'll be ready for home and getting back on the Aussie track. So where do you think that leaves the two relative sides, England and Australia?

6:06Nasser Hussain:Yeah, just on the pitches. I don't know when they change really, because we would recall this obviously a long time ago when you went there. And the Test match pitches would be fantastic, particularly at Sabina Park. Remember that kind of glassy surface you used to get there where you could almost see your reflection? Your studs wouldn't go in. It was that hard. So I don't mind you. We had that game. It was abandoned as well after about 15 overs where they completely got that pitch wrong. But at its best, it was an unbelievable pitch. So I don't really know what's happened there. But of the two sides, I mean, Australia look vulnerable, don't they, with the bat?

6:45Nasser Hussain:I think we've said that all along, that they've got some real issues. You know, you did the World Test Championship final and they've got some real issues at the top of the order. They've got their bankers, Smith and Head, in the middle. But yeah, I mean, England must look at that. With Archer back and maybe Atkinson getting fit again, if they get their full attack right, they must look at the Australian line-up and see some vulnerabilities there, albeit still the best fast bowling attack around, really, that shows as yet, although it can happen quickly, shows as yet no signs of ageing. Yeah, I mean, that bowling attack of Hazelwood Bowling, Cummins, Starkwain's 100th test, 400th wicket, the quickest fiefer ever in the history.

7:30I mean, as you say, the pink ball, but any ball, that is still... The only good thing about that was knocking Broad out of the record books. And going past your 46 all out. I'm going past the 46, yeah. Yeah. So looking back now, let's have a look back at that Test match. I mean, it was an incredible five days at Lord's time to reflect on it. I mean, the crowd on that last day, the tension, not a lot happened. There was a lot of dot balls and a lot of blocking and not a lot of runs. but it just shows how Test Match cricket can enthrall with just waiting for a wicket or waiting for Jadeja and the tail to try and survive another session.

8:13It was brilliant viewing.

8:15Nasser Hussain:Yeah. I mean, I think that afternoon session, which was an extended session, two-and-a-half-hour session, I think there were 51 runs scored, weren't there, in just 31 overs. So almost nothing happened, and yet it was. It reminded me of the day, that day when we beat West Indies in, was it 2000 at Lourdes, a very low scoring chase. I think we were chasing 150 or something. I had a broken finger. You had a broken finger. The gaffer was captain and me and Borny got a few just to, and then Corky goes over the line. But it was a similar type of day, a low scoring game, every run, you know, absolutely vital.

8:56Nasser Hussain:and people just hanging on every ball. You couldn't take your eyes off it. And it's interesting because it says something about the nature of entertainment, doesn't it, in cricket? Because, I mean, obviously, you know, T20 and 100 in short form can be unbelievably entertaining. And sixes, you know, six-sixes or whatever can be incredibly entertaining. But it doesn't have to be like that. I think that was the lesson to draw that, you know, very little can happen and it can still be unbelievably enthralling if the teams are evenly matched, if the context of the game is tight, if the ball is slightly on top of the bat, as you mentioned, and if every run absolutely counts.

9:41Nasser Hussain:I mean, that afternoon session was probably far more interesting to watch than, say, long periods of that edge-basting game when Shubman Gill just just never look like getting out and play beautifully, obviously. But even he said at the end of that game, you know, he said he felt that the bat was too far in favour of the ball at Edgbaston and he'd like to see a better balance between bat and ball. So he said something about the nature of kind of what is entertainment, what is interesting cricket to watch. But that was certainly an enthralling last day. And I mean, what a way, what a way to finish.

10:21Nasser Hussain:Well, you'd gone down to the far end by this step. No, I was watching on the third man camera a monitor. And if you know, it's quite a small one. So I was watching and as Siraj played it, I saw it go down. And then I saw it spin, but I didn't see the bail come off. So I thought, oh, no, that's hit the stumps, but the bail hasn't come off. And then when everyone just ran, Shari Bashir ran, you guessed the bail had come off. I was, as you know, I like calling it. We have our stump microphones. Unfortunately, I had my stump microphone up because you couldn't really see the bail because Siraj was in the way.

11:02Nasser Hussain:The ball had kind of nutmegged him. But as you know, if you have your stump mic up, when the bail hits the ground, you get a kind of almighty clunk. So I knew that straight away. And then Bashir obviously set off. So an incredible way for that game to end, really. I mean, what a chance of that. Before we get on to the specifics of where the game was won and lost, you spoke there about how enthralling that last day was. You also ranted all week about the overrate and how slow it was and the stops and starts for the game of cricket. It was the theme of the week, the overrate. England had been done, hadn't they?

11:40Two won, yeah. Test chance and a fine. Do you think the fact that it was, and we did a piece at Lourdes about the overrate, me, you, Kumar and Brodie looking at it and what can be done, do you think the fact that it is an enthralling five days has been, you shouldn't worry about the overrate? Or are the two not mutually exclusive? You can still have great entertaining cricket, but look after the overrate.

12:06Nasser Hussain:Yeah, I mean, you know, Kumar was on the panel because we know that he has a particular view, which is a perfectly fair and valid view, that it is the quality of the cricket that counts above all. But I thought he spoke really sensibly about that because I think we all agree that it is about the quality of the cricket and you come to a test match day to see best v best. But Kumas said there's also a perception About when players are dawdling And the umpires have lost control And players just run off for a pee break And there's a 10-minute drinks break 10 minutes before a proper break There are just elements that can surely be sharpened up And I think that's what people are asking Because if they are sharpened up Then England probably don't get done two overs and they don't get done their points in the World Test Championship and they're second and not third or whatever they are now.

13:05Nasser Hussain:So I don't think... The two are not mutually exclusive because there's areas of the game that have just become so ridiculous now. I mean, you know, players just wandering off to go to the loo. When did that become a thing? It's just... I felt a bit harsh for England. Their number one front-line spinner is off with a busted hand, so they can't bowl him. Yes, they've got Joe Root, but when it's so tight, you're going to just bowl your best seamers who are giving you complete control. They can't bowl Bashir or Bashir has to come on to bowl. And so you're then hiding him in the field. If a catch goes up nine down and he's got one hand to catch it and then they get done.

13:45But I completely agree with you.

13:47Nasser Hussain:And I have some sympathy for their view because they've said, you know, the structure, the way the game is structured, If you're going to play in the subcontinent, you're going to bowl a lot of spin. If England are playing constantly five tests at home, five in Australia, they're going to bowl more seam. I have sympathy for that view. But that doesn't take away from the fact that there is just an inordinate amount of faffing around on a day's play. And I think that's all people are asking for. For the umpires, really, the focus is more on the umpires than the players. For the umpires just to get a grip.

14:24Nasser Hussain:I don't know where the diminishing of the umpire's authorities come from. Maybe it's a post-DRS thing. You know, pre-DRS, the umpires were almost, you know, omnipotent, all-powerful. But since DRS, maybe that authority has just withered away because there was one point where I think Jaddu was having a drink and umpire Shoycott was, you know, pointing at his watch and telling him to get on with it. And he's just completely ignored. So I think there's still room for the game just to be sped up a bit Without compromising on quality Because nobody wants to see the compromising on quality As Kumar rightly said But surely there are times just where you can speed up a little bit Nice of Kumar to take a strong view And not play the audience like you did all week And moan about over eight Just knew you'd have the higher breath I mean, it was interesting, wasn't it?

15:21Nasser Hussain:Because we had Stuart on as well, who's the most recently retired of us all. And he just said very honestly, look, this is just not a conversation in the dressing room at all. It is not a focus. Now, as you know, when we were in the dressing room, your focus is on how do we win the game? How do we get runs? How do we get wickets? How do we win the game? But it is important because if you're going to be... England would dock, what was it, 19 points in the last World Test Championship cycle. I'm sure they would look at that final Between Australia and South Africa And say we want to be in that final And there's a whacking amount of Prize money to be won And prestige and all that of a great event But if you're constantly losing Points for overrates Then that's going to hurt you

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17:03Where did India lose that game? I mean, for me, obviously, the Rishabh punt run out and it just shows. And it's something I thought about you, actually, that lunch break, because you are, again, another one of your rants. You're very anti-personal milestones. You don't – you sort of just wave – think Graham Hick in wherever, Sydney or wherever. Was it Sydney?

17:22Nasser Hussain:It was Sydney. It was Sydney. And bring him out. That's all right. You just wave that away. But if you think about it, that first ball of that over, showing Bashir, the sort of drag down to KRO, and he clothed it to deep point. And if you just cut it a bit further behind or a bit further in front, He would have got 200. Pump wouldn't have been on strike. They wouldn't have to try and get K.O. back on strike. There wouldn't have been a run out. That partnership, who knows, they may have been out first ball after lunch, but that partnership would have built even more. They would have got a lead.

17:53It's amazing how moments in games of cricket, and Stokes have been aware, and that's why McCullum wants Stokes and the team constantly to be full on, because there are those moments that suddenly change a game of cricket. I thought that was such a pivotal moment.

18:08Nasser Hussain:Yeah, they were batting beautifully, weren't they? They didn't look any trouble. They looked as though they'd probably just sailed towards a first innings lead and who knows how important that would have been. But you're right, there's the two sides of it, isn't there? You're getting close to a milestone and how that suddenly then plays with your head. I mean, when you say I don't like milestones, I love milestones. In the context of the play of the game, if you like, I don't like it when, I don't know, somebody delays a declaration just so somebody can get a milestone. I think milestones are celebrated within the context of the day and the game.

18:46Nasser Hussain:That's fine. But you're right. I mean, it totally changed the way India were thinking about that final over. And then the awareness of Stokes to run out. It's a great lesson in that a test match day, which is 90 overs, 540 balls. You've got to give your attention to every ball because one moment like that can change a game. You don't know it at the time, but looking back, that was such a fundamental moment. So if you're not quite on it for that ball and you miss that opportunity, it can be really costly. So, you know, that's why players are absolutely exhausted at the end of a test match day and an end of a test match, as they should be, because it's five days of absolutely intense effort.

19:32Nasser Hussain:So that was pivotal. And then the end bit of day four, really, wasn't it, when Brydon Kars got those two wickets? Because they were playing quite easily. I think they were, was it 41 for one at one stage when Karen Nair padded up and named Gill? So those two big wickets, I thought, gave England a lift. And I actually came to the start of the last day thinking England were marginal favourites. I thought we showed Winvis quite a lot. and I thought Winvis played down India's chances on the fourth morning and then played down England's chances on the fifth morning. That seemed a lot of runs to me, given how the last half hour had gone on that fourth day.

20:14Yeah, as long as England got wickets with the new ball, really, the new-ish ball the next morning. Because one thing I thought, as you went through the day and it got flatter and flatter and the ball got softer and softer and it was doing nothing and England were down, their seamers were down on their legs, their spinner was off the field. I was just thinking, crikey, India fans must, an Indian dressing room, Gautam Gambir, must just think, if we had got stumps two down last night, we would have absolutely, and seen off the archer burst first up in the morning Stokesburg, we were absolutely, we would have coasted this.

20:46So that archer burst, it was a difficult one for Stokes, wasn't it? We were debating, me and Stuart, on the middle. In fact, the night before, with Wardy, I was talking about him. I don't know Joff for that well, as in he bowled that poor spell from the nursery end and how you handle someone like Joffra, you have to know the individual as a captain. Do you keep him waiting and that would fire him up? Someone like Goffy, you keep Goff waiting, he'd be like, come on, I'll show you. Or the Caddick scenario that I had to captain, you have to put your arm round and sort of cajole into, come on, you're still my favourite bowler, you're still my best bowler.

21:22Stokes went that way. He went, Joffra, I need you at the pavilion end, deliver for me. and that absolutely worked Joffre. And he was fired up. I don't think I've ever seen Joffre and England after what happened to Zach and Ben Duckett, that one over. And the whole of India went to him. The whole of that England team went to India. I've never seen Joffre as fired up. He was bowling beautifully on that last morning.

21:50Nasser Hussain:Yeah, I mean, his decision was half made for him, wasn't it? Because Stokes had to complete his own over and he was the obvious bowler from the nursery end. But then, yeah, you're right. Which way do you go? I mean, Carst had bowled so well the previous evening. And then Ben said it was simply because of the anniversary. He had a gut feel that this was six years to the day of the World Cup final. The two of them had been so kind of central to that day. And he just thought, I'm going to do that. And, you know, it paid off for him. You're right. I think not many people have kind of danced down the pitch and hit Joffre one-handed for four, as Rishabh Pant did.

22:27Nasser Hussain:I'm not sure he took exactly, he took finally to that. And he gave him, I think, what did he say to him? Charge that or something when he's off. Peg was cartwheeling backwards. And Ben had to hold him back. I loved how at the time Ben Stokes was sort of, you know... Well, the peacemaker. Unbelievable. I mean, who'd have thought that? What about Joffre's return? I mean, it was a highly successful return, wasn't it? I mean, he must have been a bit nervous. Everybody was a little bit on tenterhooks, four and a half years, more than 1 ,500 days. He never really looked like he was away. I mean, he bought one poor spell, didn't he, as you said, on the fourth evening from the nursery end, where he just seemed to just overpitch.

23:09Nasser Hussain:I mean, it's obviously why Stokes gave him that end, because that's where he and Bummer had had that uneven bounce from. but then he just kind of floated it up a little bit. But apart from that spell, he looked fast and really looked how he was when he left because of injuries. So, yeah, fairytale first over, wasn't it? Stokes kept him waiting one more over after four years. He gave Wokes the first over and then said, come on, Jock. And then sometimes you get it like Beefy used to do it in his comeback games or whatever. He'd get a court cover or down the leg side or something. but Joffre bowled a Jaffa that went down the slope.