ENG vs IND 2018, First Test: James Anderson Rues England's Woeful Slip Catching
England pacer James Anderson admits the battle in still on. Credits: Getty

England pacer James Anderson rued his team’s poor slip catching in the ongoing first Test against India at Edgbaston.

Had England managed to hold on to the regulation catches in the slip cordon, the game would have been over by now. However, they failed to hold on to them which played a huge part in setting the game up for a thrilling finish.

India finished day three on 110 for 5, still needing 84 runs to win the game. But the visitors would have been well out of the contest, had England been good with their slip cordon.

In the first innings, Dawid Malan dropped Virat Kohli twice – on 21 and 51. Kohli fully capitalised on the dual reprieve and scored a majestic 149 to bail India out of trouble. India were reeling at 100 for 5 but recovered to score 274.  The poor fielding has continued in the second innings too. So far, England have dropped four catches in this match.

ENG vs IND 2018, First Test: James Anderson Rues England's Woeful Slip Catching
Slip catching is an area where we’ve struggled for two years now: James Anderson (Credits: Getty)

“It’s an area where we’ve struggled for two years now,” said Anderson at the end of day three’s play.

Well, Anderson is not wrong.  Since the start of 2016, England have dropped 81 catches and 44 of them have been in the slips.

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Anderson said that the reason behind the same could be not having a settled slip cordon.

“The personnel in the team has changed quite a lot, so it’s been difficult to get a set cordon. But we’re just going to have to keep working harder and harder, pushing ourselves to be better, because you can’t keep creating the chances we are and not taking them. You can’t drop Virat Kohli on 21 (Anderson was the bowler) because he’s one of the best players in the world, and he’ll capitalise on that – which he did.

“We’ve spoken about it because of the amount of drops in the last two years, maybe even longer. When I was in the team that got to number one in the world, we caught everything. We had an amazing cordon, very fortunate, that was settled. At the minute, we’re struggling a little bit. All we can do is work extremely hard at it, and hope to improve,” he said.

ENG vs IND 2018, First Test: James Anderson Rues England's Woeful Slip Catching
We’ve got a really good chance of winning the game: James Anderson

Meanwhile, the game is set for a thrilling finish. India need 84 runs while the hosts need 5 wickets. The game could go any way and Anderson is well aware of it. The veteran pacer is now hopeful he and his teammates could deliver for one last time in the game and take the lead in the series.

“What’s been great is the way the momentum has shifted, Test cricket at its best – the way we dominated the first two sessions of the match, then India wrestled back the momentum, then it was our job to go out and bowl well.

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“To be a part of it is great, and tomorrow we’ve got a really good chance of winning the game.

“If we recover well tonight and come back fresh in the morning, we know it’s going to be 25-30 overs max one way or the other – so we can give it all we can.”

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