Hartley’s comeback embodies England’s away win for the ages

Welcome, Hyderabad 2024, stop by. I believe you know Adelaide 2010 and Karachi 2000? Grab a seat next to Port of Spain 1974 and Kingston 1990. Hope you're hungry: Brisbane 1986 is making pancakes.

The 'Best Away Wins by an England Men's Test Team' club has a new member. And as the dust settles at both ends of the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium's center field, it's worth considering this as the greatest of them all. Pass the syrup, Sydney 1894.

England beat an India who had lost just three home Tests since the start of 2013. World number one in the modern era, all they needed was the World Test Championship mace to prove it, beaten by 28 points in one of the most remarkable come-froms. -behind the victories. The brilliance is in its absurdity, like most of what this team does under Ben Stokes and under Brendon McCullum.

India were 190 runs ahead at the start of the second innings, and the largest lead they had previously squandered at home was 65 against Australia in 1964. It had looked much more controlled than India's first effort. England's 246 in 65 overs on the first day, which now seems eerily prescient given how rushed it seemed at the time.

They responded to this deficit by setting the ninth score of over 400 in a second innings against India on their patch. And it was Ollie Pope, who averaged 19.12 here on the 2021 tour, and started the match with 1 for 11, who pushed them to achieve this. Now bolstered by a positive result, the vice-captain's 196, a thrilling affair of Russian roulette, need not be so timid to make its case as England's greatest individual assault.

The way Pope bombed the world-class trio of R Ashwin, Ravi Jadeja and Axar Patel was previously unfathomable. India coach Rahul Dravid, a generational great who Kevin Pietersen emailed for advice on how to play spin before his own India epic in 2012, has put Pope in a league of his own. “I've never seen a better display of sweep and reverse sweep, you know, in these conditions against this quality of bowling.”

Setting their hosts 231 to win, England trampled the entire Indian line-up despite their main spinner, Jack Leach, being unable to fully straighten or bend his left knee after suffering a deep contusion on the field first day. Restricted to four periods at most, Leach removed Shreyas Iyer's last 'full time' batter to take the score to 119 for 7. Iyer is considered the best spinner in this Indian team. And there he was: this silky, Mumbai-raised savant, lunging forward and sneering to escape first from a one-legged Taunton.

Even with Leach restricted to one in each innings, 18 Indian wickets fell on spin. Both misses were short outs, including a charging, diving, backhand direct hit from Stokes, who two months ago was on crutches after left knee surgery, to remove Jadeja, the most fast in the world with a vaudeville mustache.

“We've had some incredible wins. But considering where we are and who we're playing against, the position we found ourselves in going into our second innings at-bat… it's our best win since I've been captain .”

Ben Stokes” Verdict on England's 28-run win in Hyderabad

Perhaps the most remarkable of all was the hero of the last day. With 7 for 62, Tom Hartley becomes the first English player to take so many on debut since Jim Laker, a Mount Rushmore cricketer as far as the English game is concerned.

The fact that Hartley is even here constitutes a unique chapter in this larger epic. He has taken just one five-wicket haul in 20 first-class matches for Lancashire – against a Surrey side who were preoccupied with their extra-curricular activities over those four days, after sealing the 2022 county championship the previous week. Across 10 red-ball matches last summer, Hartley's 19 wickets came at 44.84 apiece.

The selectors chose the whims of dating apps, opting for Hartley's six-foot-four frame over squatter options with better profiles. His first tryst with destiny was a car accident: the first (and fourth) ball of his Test career was smashed for six by Yashasvi Jaiswal.

Sitting in the dressing room at the end of the first day, scoreless for 63 from nine overs, the magnitude of it all dawned on him. Hartley gave Jeetan Patel, England's assistant coach, an honest “it was hard work”, his cheeks still scorned by the harsh reception. His compatriot Leach offered a consolation before the rest of the group brought up their sixes off Ashwin earlier in the day to inflate a deflated ego.

72 hours later, after playing a fourth innings for only the seventh time in his career, he might have a completely different outlook on the game of cricket at this level. After a vital 34 in an 80-run stand with Pope took England away from the 420 they would end up with, Hartley set about making a better story.

Jaiswal came forward with too much vigor and pushed a strong catch towards Pope from close range. Shubman Gill did the same thing two balls later. After taking to the shots with relish a few days ago, Rohit Sharma tried his best at the wrong spot and found himself facing a plumb LBW. Then Axar, promoted in order to combat left-arm spin with the left-handed bat, misjudged the delivery of the ball and returned to Hartley four balls after tea.

It was the start of an eight overs – for 10 runs, featuring three maidens – brimming with threat and, above all, control. The high release point touted as the main reason for his selection, ridiculed online, is now glorified. It's not so much the bounce, but the late drop of balls up top that has turned seasoned veterans into pets.

Resistance came from Srikar Bharat, but was quickly broken by a slow delivery that pitched on middle and took off off stump. And he completed what will probably remain the most memorable day of his career with two bewilderments, both caused by the tension he created.

Hartley joins Will Jacks and Rehan Ahmed as the third spinner under Stokes to start their careers with a five-wicket haul. It is a testament to the environment that all three came into Test cricket without any first-class record to speak of and now have memories to last a lifetime. This is perhaps how we should remember this result. Not like the first of five matches, but one of them.

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Stokes: “Our best win since I became captain”

He was full of praise for Ollie Pope for his 196 and his contributions as vice-captain.

India will respond on several fronts. The opening victory in 2021 brought about a change in manufacturing conditions and personnel, and England did not have the products to copy or challenge them. The only thing more dangerous than a groveling India is a wounded India.

Before the series began, Stokes spoke about the glory of the previous two years and the need to continue in exactly the same way. Evolve. Winning 13 out of 18 was great and all, but such a record should be built rather than preserved.

“One thing I asked for this series, and other things beyond, was, 'Can we stay engaged in our process without becoming emotionally attached to the outcome?'” And now here they are, with this which Stokes considers the greatest triumph of his career. mandate.

“We had some incredible victories,” he said. “But considering where we are and who we're playing, the position we found ourselves in going into our second inning at bat… just sitting here now and saying we're up 1-0, that's one of the biggest reasons why I feel this way. It's our best victory since I've been captain.”

The new cycle began with the most evocative victories, born of challenge, class, risk, courage and, ultimately, joy. England started quickly, fell behind, came back into the contest, set a new tone, then grafted on, with the old and the new side by side, to triumph over a heavyweight.

Of all the stunning victories won by traveling English test teams, few, if any, have had it all.