JavaHurricane
School Boy/Girl Cricketer
To be frank, England already seemed to have given up on the game yesterday evening, Duckett's comments notwithstanding. Tom Hartley's sheepish smile after he got Patidar out, where he had previously celebrated such dismissals with atmost cheer, said as much. If there was any lingering hope, it was long buried by Lunch. First time England have been mentally defeated in a Test under Stokes, I guess: which also goes a long way in explaining England's batting in the fourth innings. No way Crawley, Duckett, etc. would otherwise have been content defending and scoring at 2 an over. They were all just physically and mentally spent by then, and seemed more interested in forgetting the debacle and resetting for the next game.
And as for draws in general: Stokes's dismissiveness may well originate in many of England's batters (i.e. Root and Stokes aside) not really having great defences. Duckett, for instance, was almost lbw to Ashwin in the last over on Day 2 when he tried a forward defensive for a change, and was out defending twice at Visakhapatnam. Crawley has previously openly stated that he doesn't care about the criticism of his defensive technique. Blockathons worked for South Africa because they had the batters for the job. England playing defensively today didn't last forty overs, and even if Root, Stokes and others hadn't got out sweeping, England still would likely have not reached Lunch tomorrow.
