England prove Bazball is Test cricket's Exocet with yet another Headingley win

Exocet is most commonly referred to as a French anti-ship missile which blows the target out of water. England's Bazball does the same, except on a cricket field where their batting, regardless of situation, pitch, conditions, innings and pressure, go about business at one pace to blow the opposition bowling into pieces of irrelevance. The latest example is England's win in first Test against India at Headingley where they chased down 350 runs on the final day and 371 in total to record their second highest chase in Test history at home. The highest one, 378 runs in 2022, also came against India and in initial days of Bazball - showing what a destructive methodology it is.

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Such was the impact of Bazball on the final day at Headingley that India, despite having cheat-code Bumrah, could not take a single wicket till 188 runs were on board - and this is the fourth innings of a Test where batting is supposed to be tough. England finished the match one hour before the stumps.

About the sessions, England scored 96 in the first session till lunch on day 5 in 24 overs at 4 runs per over without losing a wicket. In the next session, they lost four wickets but they scored 152 runs at 5.3 runs per over. In the last session, they needed only 23.3 over to chase down remaining 102 runs at 4.3 runs per over for loss of only one wicket.

England chased down 350 runs in 76 overs at a run-rate of 4.60 on the fifth day pitch - the second most in a successful chase. The last time any team chased more that them was Australia - 404 against England only that too at Headingley.

The 188-run opening partnership is also the highest against India in fourth innings of a Test - and it clearly shows that the England openers were severe on the Indian bowlers.

The numbers clearly show that Bazball is something that can't be taken lightly, especially when chasing and India would have to wary of that fact in the remining four matches of the series.