PIcture : ICC / X
Gritty England held their nerves as they fought back brilliantly to beat India by 22 runs in the fascinating edge of the seat third Test at Lords in The Tendulkar- Anderson Series. With this win England now take a 2- 1 series lead.
Reversing his erlier decisons at leeds and Edgbaston of bowling after winning the toss, England Captain Ben Stokes opted to bat first at Lord’s for a change.
England made a cautious sart with openers Zak Crawley (18), Ben Duckett ( 23) getting starts ut not carrying on. Ollie Pope gave the innings the momentum with 44 but he too fell without getting big one . Deputy Harry rook was out cheaply for 11. Joe Root brought in all his experience to score his 37th Test hundred a fine gritty 104.
In seacrh of a big innings English Skipper Ben Stokes scored 44, wicket-keeper and in- from jamie Smith once again showed his talent to score crucial 51. Chris Woakes did not disturb the scoreboard out for 0. Brydon Carse, the seam bowler chiped in vital 56 runs from the lower order that helped England reach 387.
PIxcture : ICC / X
Rested at Edgbaston due to workload management Jasprit Bumrah retured to lead the attack and bagged fine 5/75 . Akash Deeps Edgbaston heroics were not repeated at Lord’s where he had sorry figures of 0/92, Mohammed Siraj 2/85 bowled his heart out . Nitish Reddy 2/62, Washington Sundar 0/21, Ravindra Jadeja 1/29
In reply , India lost opener Yashasvi Jaiswal earlyu for 13 to Jofra Archer. Karun Nair missed yet another oportunity to seal his place in the side as he fell after scoring 40. A big score eluded him yet again after getting starts. India Captain Shuman Gill was out for 16. Rishabh Pant attling a finger injury scored 74 before being recklessesly run-out. K L Rahul once again proved his mettle at the top with fine 100 . Ravindra Jadeja scored a crucial 72 as India sought to take lead. Nitish Reddy 30, Washington Sundar 23 were the other scorers as India despite the forrts could talke the lead and were bowled at the same total as England -387.
Back in Test side Jofra Archer gave the English bolwing the sharpness and the pace it needed/ rather missed at the first two Tests. Archer 2/52. Chris Woakes 3/84, Brydon Carse 1/88, Ben Stokes leading from the front 2/63 , Shoaib Bashir 1/59, Joe Root 0/35
The game was now open.
Batting fourth on this track wpuld be tricky and England needed a score around 250 to be safe . England began secons innings on shaky note as they lost openers Zak Crawley , Ben Duckett early for 22 and 12 respectively. Ollie Pope out for 4. England were woling . Joe Rott steadied the innings with 40. Harry Brook 23. English Skipper Ben Stokes 33. India were on top. Jamie Smith 8. Chris Woakes 10, Jofra Archer 5, Brydon Carse 1 as England were bundled out for mere 192.
India bowling were on spot with Washington Sundar leading the charge with excellet figures of 4/22. Jasprit Bumrah 2/38, Mohammed Siraj 2/31, Nitish Reddy 1/20, Akash Deep 1/30, Ravindra Jadeja 0/20
Chasing 192 with plenty of overs and time at hand . India atting collapsed dramatically . Courtsey immature atting and rain fade shot selection. Opener Jaiswal out for 0 falling yet again to his Rajasthan Royals team-mate Jofra Archer. Karun Nair failed to fire in six innings so far after getting starts. Here too he disappointed with a score of 14. India Captain Shubman Gill failed for the second time out for 6. 193 total to win suddenly looked like a mountain for India . The chase was floundering. Akash Deep night wqatchman out for 1. India were 58/4 at day four stumps. Needing 135 with six wickets on hand on the final fifth day.
On the fifth day, India got off to the horror start. Losing Rishabh Pant bowled b y afiery Jofra Archer for 9. K LRrahul left soon after for 39 . India 81/6 . Wasington Sundar out for 0. NItish Reddy battled hard for his 53 balls to score 13. He was out stoke of lunch. Ravindra Jadeja on the other hand was running out of partners.
Jasprit Bumrah faced 54 balls for his 5 and tried to hang around with Ravindra Jadeja. But he too fell after a gallant effort. Last man Siraj too gave Jadeja admirable support scoring 4 off 30 balls . Before he was the last man dismissed by Bashir to give England a stunning victory by 22 runs.
Picture : ICC / X
India bowled out for 170. Ravindra Jadeja’s heroics of 61 not out ( 181 balls) went in vain. If only had the top-order showed some grit like Jadeja Team India situation would have been diffrent. But in sports there is no if’s and but’s.
PIcture : BCCI/ X
England bowling attack was relentless and not willing to give an inch. Skipper en Stokes led the charge with 3/48. Jofra Archer bowled with searing pace 3/55, Chris Woakes 1/21, Brydon Carse 2/30. And th man who took the final wicket in the nail- biting finish Shoaib Bashir 1/6.
Both teams now head to Manchester for the fourth Test. England with the momentum and India would reflect on what went horribly wrong at Lord’s .
