"We wanted 250-plus": England batting coach on ideal target for India

India Gazette

11 hours ago

London [UK], July 14 (ANI): Following a heart-pounding and back-and-forth fourth day of Test match cricket at Lord's, England batting coach Marcus Trescothick spoke on how crowd's energy got his bowlers in the game during the final few overs of the day and also added that the batting unit was looking at setting a target of 250-plus for India.
Unpredictable bounce, sledges and game-changing bowling spells defined the fourth day of the third Test at Lord's as a terrifying spell from Brydon Carse and a 'Ben Stokes miracle' just before the day ended left India with a massive disadvantage at 58/4 while chasing 193 runs to take a series lead.
Speaking after the match, offering an assessment of his team's batting performance, Trescothick said, 'I think we always wanted 250-plus, of course we did. But I think after the first innings it was really hard to judge what a good score was going to be because there was definitely more variation in bounce this morning than we had seen at any time in the game really.'
'Again, we would have loved to have had more runs than what we did but I still feel like we have got a decent score on the board with something to really push towards tomorrow. So, I do not think we are going to sit back and dwell on what has happened today too much. We will look forward to what is going to happen tomorrow,' he added.
Speaking on his team's plans for the final day, the former England left-handed batter said that it all depends on the first hour of play tomorrow.
'It will revolve around the first hour of the day tomorrow, how positive India can be, how dominant we can be with the ball and how many early wickets we can get,' he said.
Trescothick admitted that it was the crowd's energy that got his bowlers into the game during the final few overs.
'I think already we have seen four good days of cricket and two games which have been well supported, but that last hour or half an hour, the support and the energy around the ground made it amazing, really, did not it? Everybody was invested into it. From an England point of view, we love those sorts of situations when the crowd is really up behind the team. Hopefully, we can get a bit more of that tomorrow and we can push forward to winning the game.'
'I think we had momentum a little bit towards the back end. When you are going out with a new ball, you are always hoping then you're going to pick up early wickets.'
'We got an early one, then they got a partnership, but I think the buzz around the ground at the end really gave the boys the lift that they needed. A couple of late wickets in the day give them that hope that we are bang on the money,' he continued.
Speaking on the status of Shoaib Bashir, who injured himself while bowling on day three but batted on day four, Trescothick said that he is 'fit and ready' to bowl.
On KL Rahul's solid old-school technique and brilliant run in this series so far, Trescothick said, 'Well along with other players of course you know you know himself, Rishabh you know they are both very very dangerous players obviously in different ways for what they're trying to do but Kale's been you know classical old-school style of test cricket isn't he? He had left the ball really well, judgment of the length is good, looked to bat for a long period of time and he has done it well.'
'Obviously 100 in the first innings (for KL Rahul), hopefully you know we can get him out early and we can start getting into the rest of the tail as they come along but he has been you know he is been pretty dominant in a few of the games that he has played and he has pretty much got a score in most things that he has played so,' he added.
India ended the day four in a severely disadvantaged spot at 58/4 while chasing 193 runs during the third Test against Lord's on Sunday.
At the end of the day's play, KL was left unscathed at 33*. While stars like Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar are yet to come and deliver their services as a batter, losing four wickets this early has put India under severe pressure.
At the final session, England started at 175/6, with skipper Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes unbeaten at 27* and 8* respectively. Washington Sundar continued running through England's key players, with his delivery crashing into Stokes' middle-stump, removing him for 33 in 96 balls, with three fours. England was 181/7.
After a long grind throughout the day, Jasprit Bumrah was finally among the wickets as he removed Brydon Carse (1) and Chris Woakes (10) in quick succession, England was reduced to 185/9. Sundar, who changed the game for his side, fittingly took Jofra Archer's wicket, completing his four wicket haul, bundling out England for 192 in 62 overs.
Sundar (4/22) was sensational with the ball, while Bumrah (2/38) and Siraj (2/31) also bowled brilliantly. Nitish Kumar Reddy and Akash also made it to the wicket charts with one-piece each.
During the run-chase of 193 runs, Jofra Archer delivered England just the start they needed, as he once again got better of opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, as an uncontrolled attempt at pull shot landed straight into Jamie Smith's hands, removing him for a seven-ball duck. India was 5/1.
KL Rahul was joined by Karun Nair on the other end. Rahul, who had scored a century just during the last innings, looked in sublime touch as he continued to find boundaries against Woakes and Archer.
Carse started his reign of terror against India as he broke the prospering 36-run stand between the duo, trapping Nair lbw for 14. He also continued to get better of skipper Shubman Gill on numerous occasions, before finally trapping him lbw as well for just six, making this outing a failure for the captain. India sunk to 53/3.
Akash joined KL as a nightwatchman. At one point, while he was receiving some medical attention, Stokes exchanged a few words with KL and clapped his hands, referring to the sledging Gill-led Indians had put his openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett during final few moments of day four. But just before day end, skipper Stokes produced the wicket his side needed to put India on psychological disadvantage, removing the nightwatchman for just 1. India ended the day with KL unbeaten. (ANI)