TimesofIndia.com in London: Mohammed Siraj stood still. He was down on his haunches after playing a Shoaib Bashir delivery back on to his stumps and Ravindra Jadeja couldn’t believe it from the non-striker end. The ball trickled to the stumps and had enough force to bring the bail down and trigger wild celebrations in the England camp. The Indian balcony still had the look of disbelief. Head coach Gautam Gambhir, KL Rahul, Karun Nair and Washington Sundar didn’t move an inch from their position.A fascinating day of Test cricket ended but India didn’t end on the side they would have liked. Jadeja fought a lone battle, gave his all during the 181-ball 61*, got a lot of support from Siraj but in the end, even after some late stomach for fight, the visitors conceded the 2-1 series lead after going down by 22 runs at Lord’s.
There was resistance, a lot of resistance when Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah dropped anchor for 132 deliveries. Runs barely ticked along during that period where survival was the first priority. With only Siraj to follow, hope, if any, rested with this eight-wicket pair. Bumrah kept blocking whatever came his way while Jadeja found the odd single to protect his partner during a period where England toiled hard under the sun. With the ball losing its sheen and hardness, the pitch also stopped playing its tricks and batting became much more comfortable than what it was in the last hour of Day 4 and the morning of Day 5. Jadeja was stuck in a difficult situation as he not only had to protect the tail but also keep the board moving in pursuit of the 193-run target. He tried, tried hard and just when the opponents were beginning to get frustrated, Bumrah, against the run of play, went for a glory shot off Stokes only to miscue it to Cook in the circle.A relieved Stokes celebrated with his hands on the knees, and caught much needed breath during what was turning out to be another long spell. He had already bowled a 9.2 over spell and was at it with the old ball. Giving his all and urging his teammates to keep the energy levels high. The day got off to a dream start for the hosts when they commenced proceedings in the morning session.It was anybody’s game when Rishabh Pant walked out with unbeaten KL Rahul. The equation was simple: India needed 135 runs while six wickets stood in between England and a 2-1 series lead. The number of wickets mattered but what mattered most was that wicket of Pant. Well before the game got underway, he was the name on every lip in and around the Lord’s.“If Pant bats for 30 minutes, England are done,” said a security guard outside the North Gate. “He will be in pain and Jofra Archer will trouble him with pace,” chimed in his shiftmate as spectators started queuing up as early as 9:15am for a 11am start.It wasn’t a packed house but noisy enough to make it an exciting start to the day’s play. Ben Stokes stood with the ball and Pant was on strike. The left-hander didn’t keep wickets and early in his innings, the pain from the injured finger was all over his face. The bottom hand came off the handle almost every delivery and you could sense the itchiness in his body language. He charged Archer for a boundary but was castled by the speedster in the same over. England were pumped. The crowd was pumped. There was tension in the Indian dressing room as they lost their X-factor early in the day. Archer had a spring in his stride early in the spell and kept flirting with the 90mph mark, and the spice in the pitch continued to do the rest. Stokes had his moment of magic from the other end when he got one to come sharply into set batter KL Rahul, pleaded for a wicket but the umpire wasn’t interested as the ball came back a long way.The England captain, down on his knees in the appeal, was convinced and Joe Root’s backing meant the signal for DRS was done before the timer ran out. Replays suggested the ball hit the pads and Hawkeye confirmed it would have crashed into leg-stump. Wicket No.6 and India were in deep trouble inside the first 45 minutes of day’s play. To make matters worse, Washington Sundar, who was very confident of the win at the end of Day 4, lasted only four balls and the scoreboard read 82/7, with only Nitish Kumar Reddy as a real batting option to follow.Reddy and Jadeja did resist for almost 15 overs but Chris Woakes dismissed the right-hander at the stroke of Lunch. Together they battled hard, dealt with a lot of verbal volleys but the England bowlers were bang on the money from the start and gave nothing away. They found the lengths and stuck to them. Relentless, quick, pleasant weather and extra motivation with a positive result in sight meant the heat remained on India, from the moment they lost those early wickets in the first session.Four down but only 135 to get gave visitors a lot of hope and belief before starting the final day. They had depth in the batting but were unable to close the game they dominated for the majority of the Test. Just like Leeds, Day 5 at Lord’s turned out to be a story of what could have been as they ended up on the side they were least expected to.
