England won by 31 runs
PLAYER OF THE MATCH : Sam Curran
Batter
Bowler
Boy, this has been a zero-gravity pendulum that's oscillated a zillion times before Ben Stokes turned up this morning, remembered he wouldn't be playing at Lord's and channeled out a spell that's bound to put most in the world to shame. But you remember what you went through, and get ready to have to go through this trauma another four times over. For now, on behalf of the entire team - Vineet Anantharaman, Srivathsa, Akshay Maanay, Pradeep Krishnamurthy and our scorer Sreenivas, it's ta ta!!
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Stats by as you already know the one and only Deepu Narayanan
Most consecutive Tests at a venue without a win for Asian teams:
17 Edgbaston (1962-present)
16 Lord's (1932-82)
16 Kensington Oval (1953-17)
14 MCG (1983 -17)
13 Sabina Park (1953-04)
13 Lord's (2001-14)
13 Gabba (1947-present)
Narrowest defeat for India by runs:
12 v Pak, Chennai, 1999
16 v Pak, Bengaluru, 1987
16 v Aus, Brisbane, 1977
31 v Eng, Edgbaston, 2018*
Scoring 50+ in each innings where no one else went past 49 (India):
D Vengsarkar 61 & 102* v Eng, Leeds, 1986
S Tendulkar 116 & 52 v Aus, MCG, 1999
S Tendulkar 76 & 65 v Aus, Mumbai WS, 2001
R Dravid 81 & 68 v WI, Kingston, 2006
MS Dhoni 77 & 74 v Eng, Edgbaston, 2011
V KOHLI 149 & 51 v Eng, Edgbaston, 2018
Lowest targets failed to chase down by India:
120 vs WI, Bridgetown, 1997
176 vs SL, Galle, 2015
194 vs Eng, Edgbaston, 2018*
208 vs SA, Cape Town, 2018
Highest % contribution by one batsman in a Test for India (all 20 wickets):
45.87 V Kohli (200/436) v Eng, Edgbaston, 2018
43.71 S Gavaskar (344/787) v WI, POS, 1971
42.34 VVS Laxman (174/411) v Aus, SCG, 2000
41.97 V Sehwag (251/598) v SL, Galle, 2008
41.76 V Mankad (256/613) v Eng, Lord's, 1952
Top scoring in both innings of a Test most times for India:
8 S Gavaskar / R Dravid
6 S Tendulkar / V Kohli
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Satya: If I were Dhawan, I would get myself out of this team for the series and work on my bunch of weaknesses. Dhawan, Rahane, Rahul... we need answers from you. "Plenty of upset Indian fans after yet another close Test defeat"
Shubham: Problems aplenty for India. Vijay and Rahane looking like shadows of their previous class, Dhawan undeserving, Rahul has little experience in English conditions, Umesh inconsistent.
Pratik: England held their nerves. The way they bowled shows the confidence they had in their skills to edge a nerve wrecking thriller
BHARAT KUMAR BIHANI: Kohli was just outstanding to watch. The decision to drop Pujara especially in the low scoring game hurt India. He should have been selected over Vijay or Rahane (short of confidence).
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Karthik: India losing test matches due to poor batting will take time to digest....2 in SA, 1 against SL and now 1 in Eng
Sam Curran | Man of the Match: I can't take it all at the moment. It is all very special and feels like a dream. Just couldn't get any sleep last night. Obviously when Jimmy took Karthik out first up it gave us a lot of confidence. Luckily for Stokesy, he got a perfect spell this morning and changed it for us. I just try to take it like another game, but it is quite hard with the Barmy Army chanting out there, but I look to take it all in and am trying to learn in only my second game. To be honest, I looked to learn from how Virat batted with the tail in the first innings. I spoke to Kumar (Sangakkara) the other day in the hotel and he told me a thing or two about batting with the tail and was lucky it all came off the middle in the end. This (Test cricket) is what I always wanted - playing Test cricket in front of these big crowds, with these guys I have grown up watching and I am looking to learn everything I can from guys like Jimmy, Broad, Stokes everyday. [He's the youngest England player to win a MoM, ever]
(2/2) It is a great start for us in the series, we know there is a lot of work to be done, but it gives us a lot of confidence. It shows that there is so much more than just skills, runs and wickets when it comes to Test cricket at this level. You need some inner belief and steeliness that we have a lot in our dressing room. It is a great time for us and hopefully we can use it going forward. Sam Curran has a great amount of skill; great having him in our side and very exciting and promising cricketer. He just didn't seem to feel any sort of pressure with the bat and we just love having him in our side, quite like having two Ben Stokes in the side. He is only in his second Test and it is easy to get carried away, but a great prospect for us. It is easy to make an emotional decision right now (for the next Test), but we need to sit outside with the team management and decide for Lord's depending on the surface.
Joe Root | English skipper: (1/2) I am thrilled to bits. It has been a fantastic team performance despite the ups and downs the credit must go to the bowling unit more than anything. The easy thing to do is to criticize the batters, but it isn't easy taking 20 wickets on a pitch like this. Coming into today, it was going to be stiff challenge and we knew that if we stayed calm throughout, we would give ourselves the best chance to win. I felt quite calm, might not have appeared to be but it is something I need to work on. That is what the atmosphere is all about, this is why Test cricket is this special - it throws up so many things through the day and we did a good job in staying calm and kept believing in each other. We were really good in staying quite calm, trusting the stuff that worked for us previously and we made sure we didn't get ahead of ourselves. After three days of fantastic cricket from both sides, it gives us a lot of confidence going into the next game.
(2/2) From the team's point of view, my innings in the first innings is right up there, perhaps second after the knock in Adelaide; it is something I will fondly remember. Had we won it would have been the best. It always feels good when you can pull your side close to the first innings totals the oppositions have. One more partnership and we could have pulled this home. We need to think how to regroup and get back for the next match. Test cricket is my favourite format, there is nothing better than testing yourselves over five days against top quality oppositions and people watching it too should love watching it. I am sure every player playing Test cricket would vouch for it as well.
Virat Kohli | Indian skipper: (1/2) First of all, it was a great game of cricket for all those watching at home and here in the stadium. Glad to be a part of such an exciting Test match; there were a couple of moments when we came back. A team like England doesn't let you do it everyday, they were relentless and they made us work very hard for our runs. It sets up the series nicely and gives us what we need to do going forward. Our shot selection could have been better. We definitely need to apply ourselves better with the bat, but England came back superbly. We need to take the positives and move forward. We can be proud as a team to start against England in England the way we have. There is a lot to learn from the lower order in the first innings, Ishant and Umesh got stuck in the middle. Ishant showed character here, Umesh hung around with Hardik again. There is no hiding from this game; we need to be positive, relentless and whatever the feelings are would come out now in no time. We need to take the negatives out and build on the positives as we go on.
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Root and Kohli are chatting as they are ready to be called up to talk. This game will go down as one of the great Tests. Made great by several outstanding performances. What a way to play England's 1000th Test. Superb. And Edgbaston was a deserved venue. England preserve their proud record of not having lost against any Asian side. But boy was that record tested or what! Time now for Kohli. Here he is...
Kishlay Kumar Singh: An individual brilliance (Kohli's), gone without adequate support from other end. Karthik needs to upgrade his defensive skills. Message from the coach should be clear as evidenced by Umesh. International matches such as these could be career threatening. The case of Jadeja against Pakistan in CT.
The man who broke India's chase by removing Kohli - Ben Stokes: It was great. Last night we were magnificent with the ball. I thought we were a bit behind after taking the lead, the way Sam Curran came out and played at such a young age, it was the turning point in this Test match. It was just great to be part of this game. He (Kohli) played a brilliant knock in the first innings, with the ball swinging he was moving across to play the outswinger, tried to swing it back into him. Moments like that change a game in these tight ones. Great start to this tough five match series. Being 1-0 up we are in the box seat at the moment. We weren't quite sure what to expect when we got here (today). We needed five wickets and we had the confidence, but these games thought us how to stick together as a team. Gives us heaps of confidence. We have a five Test match series and we have to take as much confidence as we can.
Looks like we are headed back to the 90s era when it was all about Tendulkar. The same seems to be repeating here, Kohli was the standout batsman in both innings, receiving little support from his partners. He looked a class apart but this Indian lineup looks heavily reliant on him. Not a good sign. Time for others to step up or else this series will go the same way as the others overseas. Today's defeat should rankle them, for 194 was definitely chaseable but instead history will record it as another chastening overseas Test defeat, to go with the many that they have suffered in the past. Do hang on for the presentations...