TimesofIndia.com in London: Another India player was in the opposition opener’s face for an animated send-off; there was a little graze of the shoulders, and the fielders converged towards the pitch to celebrate the first wicket of the morning. It seemed like an extension of the last seven minutes on Day 3, only the protagonist had changed. Live Score: India vs England 3rd TestMohammed Siraj, who was merely a supporting cast to captain Shubman Gill last evening, was in the leading role on a cooler Day 4 morning, where the sun stayed behind the clouds to make conditions pleasant for the visitors. India’s bowling pair of Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah were in no mood for pleasantries as they unleashed fury and operated with a lot of fire in the first hour of the day’s play. From the Pavilion End, Siraj instantly hit rhythm and found the right length to keep England openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett guessing. The inconsistent bounce, coupled with sharp movement in the air and off the surface, made batting extremely difficult.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!To start with, Siraj was a bit wide of the batters, but the moment he got the stumps into play, he made them dance to his tunes. He had his tail up, and once he found rhythm, the right-armer became a different beast. To India’s delight, it took him just one delivery to shift gears. After that, the skill took over, and the pitch’s variable nature allowed him to dominate the proceedings.
The initial couple of overs were enough for England to start exploring unconventional ways of scoring runs. And when Duckett played that scoop off Siraj, it was clear they were anything but comfortable. Siraj was all fired up, didn’t miss an opportunity to rile up the batter, and got his man when the left-hander miscued a pull to Bumrah in the ring.
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Early success and early momentum meant the intensity increased from both ends. Bumrah kept troubling Crawley and Ollie Pope and was unlucky to return wicketless during his five-over burst. He looked in top rhythm from the Nursery End and was extracting some mean bounce from awkward spots. The odd one would crash into the right-handers, but they survived, despite the false shot percentage being so high.Clueless against Bumrah and rattled by Siraj, it was hard work being an English batter during that period. Siraj picked another one at the stroke of drinks when he trapped Pope in front. There was a discussion before taking the review, but Siraj was “100%” convinced it was crashing into the stumps. Replays confirmed it, and India headed into the first break of the day with momentum on their side.
Crawley survived last evening, survived the first hour on Day 4, but fell to the military-medium pace of Nitish Reddy as he couldn’t keep the expansive drive down. Yashasvi Jaiswal, patrolling at gully, completed a sharp catch. It was Reddy’s chance to be in the batter’s face now, as India had thoroughly dominated the session with some aggressive bowling and a lot of assistance from the pitch.Second change, but similar impact. Akash Deep was introduced late but, even after getting tonked by Harry Brook in the previous over, he roared back by disturbing the woodwork. An absolutely shocking attempt to play the sweep off the pacer led to the downfall of the World No. 1 batter. India weren’t complaining, as their plan of keeping Brook rooted to the crease by having wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel up paid rich dividends.The match continues to be delicately poised, but those sixty minutes of hell at Lord’s will haunt England’s batters for a very long time. As far as India are concerned, they would have surely discussed how much worse it could have been for the hosts in that fiery morning session.
