England’s match-winner and debutant spinner Tom Hartley said that the Hyderabad pitch didn’t offer much for the spinners and that he had to “keep a cool head” to keep his calm and strike when he could as he led England to a historic win at Hyderabad in the first Test against India.
Tom Hartley’s sensational seven-for was the point of difference as England notched a memorable 28-run win for the ages on the fourth day of the first Test in a five-match series.
England, bolstered by Player of the Match Ollie Pope’s mesmerizing 196-run innings dragged themselves back into the game and set India a commendable target of 231 runs.
With more than a day and a half of play remaining, one would have expected India to smoothly waltz into a comfortable win. But, the reality was far from it as England’s spinners wreaked havoc on the Indian batters, scalping all ten wickets themselves within the same day of play, as they bowled out the Indians for 202.
“It’s unbelievable, will not sink in for a while to be honest. I don’t think there was a lot of help, I had to keep a cool head,” Hartley spoke in a post-match interview the win.
“It was a tough one (on the first innings bowling effort), it didn’t spin as much as I thought, and I had a chat with Stokes, McCullum and the team management.”.
Following a tumultuous first innings spell, where Hartley registered figures of 2/131, the debutant said that skipper Ben Stoles instilled confidence in him and told him to just bowl into the surface in the following innings.
“The dressing room has great vibes, it’s a fantastic dressing room, one of the best. It’s just the Stokes way, just bowl into the surface and we came out on top today.” .
Hartley’s effort is the best figures for an England spinner on Test debut in the post-war era and nine wickets by him in a match is the joint-most since Robert Berry’s 9/116 against West Indies in Manchester in 1950.
“Getting a few runs always helps (on his second innings batting effort), it also helped me get to know about the pitch a lot more. Just unbelievable to be honest.
I didn’t have to bowl as fast as I thought (in the first innings), watching Ash (Ravichandran Ashwin) and (Ravindra) Jadeja, we knew we could take some time – change the length and the trajectory when we bowled for the second time,” Hartley said.
The sensational seven-for-yielding spell from Hartley, a marvelously tight spell from Joe Root and the experience of Jack Leach all came together perfectly as England cleaned India up with ease.
(with inputs from agencies)
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