India edge England to EPIC victory at The Oval! | Sky Sports Cricket Podcast

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Moments after India clinched a thrilling six-run victory over England’s cricketers in the fifth Test at The Oval to level the series 2-2, Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton are joined by former India player and commentator, Dinesh Karthik, to look back on a dramatic day and a brilliant series.

00:00 DK is very happy!
01:25 India’s victory
02:39 Final hour of play
04:44 2-2 fair score
05:58 Siraj the key
07:11 Harry Brook
08:58 Shubman Gill
10:07 2-2 fair reflection
11:35 England concerns
13:14 Final thoughts

#cricket #indiacricket #englandcricket

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Welcome to the Sky Cricket podcast. Moments after India’s narrowest ever test match victory, the podcast was under maintenance yesterday afternoon when it looked as though England were breezing to victory. But now that India have got themselves over the line for a two all draw. The podcast is backed that let me give an introduction here. The two fossils of broadcasting Michael Atan and Nasarus have given me so much grief in this last 45 days and it started with a couple of days prior to the series. Let’s go back there. I hope the producer has enough footage to put that back in. Nasser said asked me rather what do you think is the series score line? Tell me please. And I just thought about I said two all because I feel England probably have a vulnerable bowling attack. I’m sure those words would match. And then he gave me so much grief. He said that if ever there was something called sitting on the fence, here we go with DH. And Mr. Michael Atheertton from the time I landed in Heathrow is just asking me turbulent questions and putting me under immense pressure started with how I advised Virat Kohli on how to play and it has been good to see India finish on the note. What a day it was. But now you can start your thing. I need to get off my chest. Well, like reflect on that. I mean, an amazing hour of cricket, a drama that like likes of which we’ve rarely seen with wokes coming out shoulder in a sling, preparing to bat left-handed. But just for a moment reflect on that victory for India, what it will mean to the country because millions would have been tuning in to watch the end of this game. Yeah, we heard Ravi Shastri say that there’ll be a lot of people in India who would have just said, “Thank you for the moment. I’m not coming to office today. I have better things to do. I found excuses to just stay at home. And I just received a text now and I thought there was quite a nice text in the sense that he said, “You’ve probably been part of the greatest test series ever that you’ll be a part of as a broadcaster.” And I don’t know if that’s going to stand true for the future, but it definitely from the past I must say this is the greatest test series that I’ve been part of every test going down five days and almost to the last session today. Yesterday we were a bit I mean we all expected it to finish and we just thought why extend it when yesterday it was possible to get a result which they should have using common sense if both teams are okay with it but kind of felt it was worthwhile coming back almost packed house everybody trying to get in and a lot of support for India and it was just great to see a group of young boys stand up against a very strong English team by the way if I’m a boss in India I’m sacking people if they are coming in to work today not not if they’re bunking off and watch the cricket go home and watch the cricket. Should we reflect on the first hour this morning? First of all, who did England get anything wrong? Was it just wonderfully spirited bowling from India in conditions that remained helpful, didn’t they? I mean, that we all wondered whether that roller this morning would flatten things out, but it didn’t seem to. It didn’t. The first two balls went before. Overton had obviously said, “Right, we’re going to go out there and maybe get as close um to the target before the new ball, which was four and a bit overs away.” And in fact after those two boundaries it was noticeable especially from Siraj that ball was still hooping and seeming like it was uh late yesterday and then the debate was they were never going to take the new ball because they had a ball that was doing something and then once you lost one wicket once that first wicket went then you felt the crowd and the Indian fans were going ballistic and you just felt England were a bit sort of frenetic they wanted it to finish. Jamie Smith was the key wicket. I mean, he’s obviously the the mainline batter. He’s he’s had a brilliant start to his test career, but also he’s shown in his short career to date that he can really take the game to the bowlers and he he he looked a bit dodgy last evening, didn’t he? And you know, couldn’t really get going. Yeah. And that’s when the pressure is that you turn up you 35 an oval day five. The ball’s allowed to swing and see by the way. That’s what happens in the history of test match cricket. Um 35 four wickets, one of them obviously been woke. you’re probably favorites there. You know, two proper players at the crease who can bat and Jamie Smith an exceptional player with a test match 100 to come next in Atkinson. You had England as favorites. But once you saw that first wicket go then you knew this is now nothing to do with what’s happened in test cricket. This is pressure of the situation today and the big heart of Siraj. He just came I said at the end there two 3-1 would have been a bit of a travesty. I don’t think England deserved to win this series 3-1. I felt to all was a fair reflection of how both sides have played. India have lost five tosses and I thought it was absolutely fitting that the man um to get that final wicket was Muhammad Sur. You’ve been translating for us. It’s interesting that two people from SX feel the same way. One is Nasaras Hussein who feels 3-1 would have been a travesty and Ryan Tenduscate I was just standing with him and he said if it was 3-1 it would be like a kick in the teeth because we genuinely have competed with them and we have gone toeto-toe in so many sessions we would have been very disappointed so that’s the general feeling out there and yeah I was speaking and helping Siraj translate them just one more point I I don’t like to button but I’ll just tell you this speaking to a couple of the boys so the only thing I asked them what changed after tea why is it that it felt like nothing was happening between lunch and tea and what changed and They said Harry Brook was just outstanding. They just didn’t have answers to him. He batted brilliantly and they said the way Harry Brook and Joe Root actually batted in that stage made the bowlers look a lot lesser than what the ball was doing. It was doing a bit when they got Harry Brook’s wicket they thought okay maybe. But when they got the next wicket which was Pel and Jor following soon after that’s when they said here we go there’s a chance. Your interview with Saraj and translation was so good you had to do it twice didn’t you? It just tells my inexperience in broadcasting. I just went straight up to Sira and talk started talking like my dad was doing. Wait for a cue from director. Right. We’ll get to Harry Brookke in a minute. Just a final word on Sira. I mean it it’s bizarre, isn’t it? All the talk was about Jasper Bumra before the series began. He’ll only play three games and India have to win the games that he’s playing. They ended up not winning those, winning the ones that he didn’t play. But maybe that’s not a complete coincidence that the rest of the attack in particular Siraj feels that they have to raise their game in the absence of Bumrah. Feels like it. I mean it’s not Bumra’s fault because he’s the best going around in the world. Every time he plays he creates an impact. I think it’s got to do with the captain as well. Maybe he trusts Bumrah so much that at times he doesn’t believe the others are as potent as him in certain situations. He didn’t have Bumra. He said here we go. It’s Prasid and Siraj for me from the start till this game finishes. So those kind of moments actually instill confidence in you and I think at times whoever the captain has been Virat Kohli Ro Sharma and now Shubman Gil when Bumrah has played has relied so much because he’s such a genius and he makes the ball talk that others sometime pale in comparison on that given day when he’s around. Um we’re talking about Harry Brookke and obviously it seemed as though the game was in the bag yesterday afternoon when Brooke and Root were playing so well. It was a brilliant innings from Harry Brookke. got out in the most bizarre fashion running down trying to slap one over extra cover bat ends up at square leg ball ends up in the hands of cover. how people clearly praise the innings but then in in hindsight now England have lost they’ll say why didn’t he just get England over the line do we have to accept that a player like that and he’s a little bit like Rishab Pant for India that a player like that who can change a game is not always going to get it right and given the level of risk that he plays with he is going to get it wrong from time to time is that you just accept that or what would you do as captain you would say is it Uh, is that a shot that you play and gets you a lot of runs? Which he does. Which he does. He charges the seamer as much as anyone. I see probably Risha Punts another one. And he hits it over extra cover and mid off for four and six um at will to be honest. So it’s a high percentage shot for him. In fact, it’s in his percentage is what I mean. So I I have not got a problem. It looked a bit ludicrous because the bat went out of his out of his hand. Um, so it would be like me or you playing a forward defense or Owen Morgan or Ben Ducket playing reverse sweeps. Would you ever be critical of Ben Ducket getting out reverse sweep or Owen Morgan in white ball cricket? You wouldn’t. So why would you be critical of Harry Brook? What we have to be careful I guess as a pundit giving them license and not being critical at all because you ever criticize them. We used to give KP stick when KP would say that’s the way I play. Now, you do have to play the situation as well. And that’s what Harry may have to learn and add to his game and learn maybe from this that people below him once put under pressure in a certain situation may collapse in a heap. So, next time, even though it’s your shot, play the situation to get your team closer to the line. But I cannot be critical of someone’s got 10 hundreds in 50 innings and plays the way he does. He’s just a fabulous player. Shubmanill. He looked very cool and calm when I interviewed him. Well, only about 10 or 15 minutes ago. His heart must have been pounding this morning, though. Yeah, I don’t think he would have had a good night’s sleep just knowing that they’re close, but nowhere close to the finish line. Four wickets is a lot. And Jamie Smith with the impact that he’s had in the series so far and Jamie Overton who can definitely hold a bat, he would have had his doubts. And the fact that a heavy roller was going to be on today, which flattened it out on day one, day four, he would have had the same feelings walking in today. And luckily for him, looks like it didn’t have too much of an effect because the ball was still swinging. But let’s talk about his batting. I feel walking the series, Nas and I, you spoke about the fact that your currency is runs. And I think he’s uh lived up to what he wanted to, which is be the best batter across both teams. And it’s fair to say that he’s really worked on certain skills in his batting mentally and technically. And he’s come out here seen through some tough spells. Yes, the pitches were great for batting, but not everybody else got 754. Here he is 200 runs ahead of the next highest which tells you he’s done everything possible as a young leader to say I’m here to say tough moments big series look out I’m going to do it for India every time now I think we all feel too all was a fair reflection I mean if you looked at the series one India probably won sorry sessions won India probably won more sessions than England I was just looking at the series averages they’ve got four of the top six rungetters Shubman Kale Rahul Raindra Jadea and Rishab Pant four of the top six wicket kit takers siraj bumra akash deepep and and prasid krishna yeah that’s why I think to all was a fair reflection I guess a few Indian fans out there will actually say this was a missed opportunity um they didn’t quite m get those key moments did they they didn’t there were there were moments throughout the series that if they just played it better but that’s we’ve all played the game over a fivematch series England would stay say stay the same you know late last night could they have done a little bit better so they didn’t have so much pressure today They won two of their games without Bumra, which we’ve touched on. What do we know as pundits? At the start, we’re all going, “You must win those Boomerra games. They are your trump cards. The the two games he didn’t play day one.” Um, I think Gil as a batter has been prolific and wonderful. I think he can still learn a bit as a captain at certain times. You know, a one-off example, the last test at Manchester, Washington Sundar, not bowling him for so long, changing the ball at Lords when he had a ball that was changing. I think he learned from that today. this one was doing it and he didn’t get it changed for a new ball. So there’s things he’ll learn but he said before the series I’m going to get runs. Uh that’s my best thing for this team and he certainly done that. Anything concern you about England? No hundreds for Crawley. The way Bethl was carted around the series carrying drinks which slightly came back to haunt England yesterday. Crawley has played exactly how I thought Cwley will play because that’s how he’s always played. He will be eye-catching when he gets runs and everyone say this is why they stick with Cwley and then there’ll be a dismissal where you go what what are you doing there? And he’ll end up have you got his stats for the I think an average of 30 which is which is kind of his test average and his first class average 290 runs at 32 the only batter top order batter not to make 100 but the partnership with Ducket is a good one. So you’re not going to separate that. They work they play they get on there’s obvious left hand right hand tall. So, they’re going to be opening unless there’s an injury in the first test match of the Ashes. I I think a Bethl thing is no reflection on Jacob Bethl. No, it’s a reflection on, you know, you can’t you have to have played cricket and you’ve had to play cricket in the format in red ball cricket. If you’re going to come up against Siraj and all these guys in the high pressure cauldron, I don’t care what the modern cricketer says about um I don’t need time in the middle or we just go and play. You need to be batting to be carried around. Kay didn’t come back from the IPL, did he? He stayed. Fair enough. That’s his decision. And then he missed the Zimbabwe test and then he’s not played much cricket. He probably had more balls in this game than he’s had all year in red ball cricket. And that finds you out. However talented you are, that will find you out. So it’s not a Jacob Bethl point. It’s to make sure that future cricketers do get the right quantity and quality. Given the best chance to succeed, basically. Yeah. To all then. Big smile on your face. Very happy because I think you’re the man who knows. You’re the man in the know. Yeah. I think you guys are also very happy with how the result panned out from a series cricketing point of view. I think it was great to broadcast on so many big moments, so much spice, hostility throughout the series, but a lot of respect at the end. And look, we have all the banter and fun outside of it. And it it all shows with the type of cricket they were playing. If India were probably bulldozed or the other way around, I don’t think the fun would really make sense. It was just good to see how both teams went about it. They were hot. They really tried hard. They pushed each other. But at the end of it, I think two wall is a good score line. Since you have got the best cricket brain here and since you are so good at predictions as we’ve just seen. Wait, another tough question. Can you give us an Ash’s prediction? You have seen India play Australia. You’ve seen England play India. The next big series for us is the Ashes. A prediction, please. Deshk, Mr. Predictor. [Music] M quickly last orders are coming. Two Australia 32 Australia. Australia. Well, there’s plenty of podcasts to come before the start. Well, no, we’re not having him on yet, but we got plenty of time for us to make our predictions. Anyway, this has been a fantastic series. We’ve loved covering it. Um, goodbye for now.