India out-think England to secure famous victory as Joe Root gets in a muddle

SIMON HUGHES AT LORD'S: Strange fields and poor bowling saw Joe Root's side go from favourites to losers in the space of a day's play

It was the first hour that was the problem.

Surprisingly it was the wicket that England wanted in the first 15 minutes – that of Rishabh Pant – which caused England to lose their bearings. They did obtain the wicket of Ishant Shama soon after but for the next hour they lost the plot.

With two batting novices at the crease – Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah – combined batting average of nine before yesterday) of 12 – and the ball only 12 overs old, all England had to do was stick to the basics and they should have been able to bowl India out and set themselves 180 for victory.

Oddly at such times the basics often desert sound minds and savvy bowlers. Confronted by batsmen for whom a straight ball often has a lethal quality, they produce anything but a straight ball. The bowlers flung everything they could at Shami and Bumrah. There was ferocity but no focus and the batsmen, swiping and swishing merrily at the start, began to play more with more orthodoxy once they had sliced and snicked their way into double figures. 

A red mist regularly descends on fast bowlers in these situations. They start off sane, concentrating on the usual line and length, and fizz a couple past groping bats. The batters, often wary of staying in line, have a couple of flicks at the fuller balls and get runs off the inside edge. There is the odd slice over the keeper’s head.

The bowlers suddenly revert to bouncer mode – believing that this is the quickest route to amputating the tail. Sometimes, as in this case, it’s the quickest route to everything unravelling. They lost their direction completely. The harder Jimmy Anderson, Mark Wood and Sam Curran charged in, the more futile their efforts became. Shami and Bumrah eventually put on 89 vital runs.

For all his brilliance with the bat, Joe Root must take some of the blame here (and soon after the game he accepted that). His field settings were increasingly bizarre. Through that partnership I was sat with two England captains – Mike Brearley and John Emburey, two county captains and several legends of the game including Kumar Sangakkara and Sourav Ganguly.

^{Root's opposite number Virat Kohli leading the celebrations}

None of us could understand the tactics or the field settings, which at one point had Mark Wood bowling 93mph rockets at two tailenders with five men on the boundary – a fine third man, a long leg, a deep square leg, a deep mid-wicket and a deep cover and no slip.

There was no focus on the basics – probing away around off-stump with three slips and a short leg and putting up with the odd lucky edge. There was way too much short ball theory from bowlers caught up with the emotion of the situation, no variations of pace and fielders scattered in all directions. Runs came at a gallop in unforeseen directions off unexpected parts of the bat.

There was a conspicuous lack of deliveries hitting the stumps. Consider how Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj polished off the England innings to achieve a famous victory. Despite the intensity of the situation, a calm slower ball from Bumrah pinned Ollie Robinson lbw and a fast straight ball from Siraj clattered into Anderson’s off-stump.

On the day, England were outthought as much as outplayed by India. They finished the match as they started – with the opening stand of 126 - applying sound, sensible basics to their rich tapestry of skills.