The Nottingham Test might as well be labelled the ‘game of comebacks’. On Day 4, England were reduced to 62 for 4 wickets in the first session and it seemed like Indian bowlers would skim through the batting lineup once again. However, two of the most attacking players of England—Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes—showed grit and stitched a partnership which made Indian bowlers toil.
They shared a partnership of 169 runs. It was a rather slow innings according to Buttler’s standards. He got to his maiden Test hundred in 152 deliveries. On the other hand, Stokes was happily playing a Pujara-esque inning. He scored 62 runs from 187 deliveries at a strike rate as low as 33.16.
The partnership gave England fans hope that they might actually get close to a daunting target of 512. The partnership led to Barmy Army posting an overly optimistic tweet taking a dig at Virat Kohli & Co.
Only rain can save India now.
— England’s Barmy Army (@TheBarmyArmy) August 21, 2018
The premature tweet backfired as Indian Twitterati were quick to pounce on the opportunity to troll the Barmy Army:
Rewrite tweet as even rain can’t save england now #ENGvIND #INDvENG
— JJ (@Joshua_Jeyam) August 21, 2018
— Raja Rajan (@raja221092) August 21, 2018
From winning* pic.twitter.com/HQGshZmgNk
— -CR7 PAAJI- (@Kakarla07) August 21, 2018
— Sanjivni Sharma (@SanjivS33495004) August 22, 2018
Very optimistic!!
— Dilipsinh Abda (@dilipsinhabda) August 21, 2018
Early celebration ..@mushfiqur15 is that you??
— Deep reja (@deep_reja) August 21, 2018
Height of over confidence.. Only Rain can save England
— Kaviyarasu sp (@SpKaviyarasu) August 21, 2018
Who will save England now pic.twitter.com/J7JwtufYiR
— AB (@AB_231991) August 21, 2018
Barmy Army right now pic.twitter.com/i9aoWDJsaX
— Dexter (@MunnaKaTunna) August 21, 2018
What goes around comes around hunny
— Mahi Virat (@Mahivirat8) August 21, 2018
As soon as the new ball was introduced, Jasprit Bumrah turned the game upside down. First, he got the priced wicket of Buttler who was looking dangerous, mostly dealing in boundaries (12 boundaries, 79.25 per cent of runs scored).
Next ball was a peach of a delivery, knocking over Jonny Bairstow’s off-stump and sending him back to the dressing room for a golden duck. Bumrah was on a roll, taking Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad’s wickets too. It could have been a perfect spell had his delivery that got Adil Rashid’s wicket had not turned out to be a no-ball.
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Rashid and James Anderson will be coming out to bat. India need just one wicket to win the Test and keep the five-match series alive. It will be apt to say that only rain can save England now, and going by the English weather, the team would be placing all their hopes for a downpour.
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