England assistant coach Paul Collingwood is been surprised due to the lack of swing from the Duke’s ball during the ongoing Fourth test at Oval.
Paul Collingwood was surprised to see the lack of swing from the duke ball on day 3. England Bowlers were unable to generate swing from the duke ball at Oval. England bowlers managed just three wickets on Saturday.
“Lack of swing from the duke ball surprised us,”
said England assistant coach Paul Collingwood.
“I thought we were very disciplined and stuck to task all day. But one thing that surprised us was the lack of swing from the duke ball,”
the former England captain told reporters in a virtual interaction after the day’s proceeding.
“We all know once there’s some movement in the air, and the wicket with some carry it would trouble the Indian batsmen. So we were pretty surprised and could not get the swing. We tried everything with it, changing the shining side but could not get movement,”
he rued.
Rohit Sharma scored his first overseas test century, as India ended the day at 270 for 3, due to bad lights interruption.
The fourth test of Day 3 saw a batting Master class of team India. After the 83 runs partnership with KL Rahul, Rohit sewed 153 runs for the second wicket with Pujara.
They had built a lead of 171 runs with 7 wickets in hand along with two days to go in the test match.
“I thought we asked questions all day. But a lot of credit goes to the Indian batsmen with Rohit at the top of the order. We had to wait for the breakthrough, thankfully we got it with the help of the second new ball.”
Collingwood said.
Talking about Rohit’s innings, he said:
“He’s got a very good technique. He has played well so far in the series. We have found in the past he’s quite an attacking batsmen. But he has been very watchful in the series. It was hard to create any chances in the series. You got to give him a lot of credit.”
Collingwood, however, remained hopeful of capitalizing their chances and said they are ready for any target posted by India.
“We have seen throughout the Test series, momentum shifted very quickly. If we can get some movement, we can exploit the conditions and put the middle and tail order under pressure.
“The conditions looked good for batting so we should not be scared of whatever total they set. Hope we have a good day tomorrow,”
he said.
England defeated India by an innings and 76 runs at Headingley in the third test to leave the five-match series 1-1. The fifth and final test match will begin at Old Trafford on September 10.
Also read: South Africa levels the ODI series by 1-1