New Delhi: India squandered a great opportunity to take a massive step towards claiming a rare series win in England by losing a winnable Lord’s Test on the final day in London. After bowlers set up the match perfectly with a superb display on Day 4, batters failed to deliver as the visitors were blown away by English fast bowlers in the morning session.
Chasing a 192-run target, India lost four wickets in the final session on Day 4, four more in the first session on Day 5, one in the post-lunch session and the final in the last session to slump to a 22-run loss and 1-2 scoreline in the five-match series.
Similar to the first Test, India dominated the game for a large part of the game, but crumbled under pressure against a spirited English bowling attack.
Jadeja’s valiant effort goes in vain
Only Ravindra Jadeja (61 not out), KL Rahul (39) and the lower order showed some fight for the Indians, who never really got going during the run chase and lost wickets at regular intervals. The batting collapse ruined the foundation set by the bowlers, especially Washington Sundar, who took four wickets in quick succession to restrict England to 192.
While the 192-run target looked small, but was never going to be easy considering the up-and-down nature of the pitch and the pressure of chasing in front of a hostile Lord’s crowd.
However, Jadeja fought valiantly till the end and added 88 runs with the last three batters (Nitish Reddy, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj) to take India close to what looked like an impossible task at one stage when India were 82 for 7 in 24.4 overs.
The last three wickets put up staunch resistance playing almost 50 overs before Shoaib Bashir castled Siraj as India were bowled out for 170 in 74.4 overs, falling agonisingly short of the target.
The story, though, would have been completely different if India hadn’t lost the momentum due to a totally avoidable dismissal, which, in the end, proved to be the turning point.
Pant’s costly run out: A turning point at Lord’s
On Day 3, India were in a dominant position at 248/3 when a blunder resulted in the untimely dismissal of Rishabh Pant and killed the momentum built by a superb 141-run partnership between the India wicketkeeper and KL Rahul on the stroke of lunch.
Pant’s needless run out following a direct hit from Ben Stokes gave a much-needed lift to the English team going into the break.
The call to take the run was largely due to the urgency to allow Rahul to reach the 100-run mark before the lunch break.
Pant’s untimely wicket on 74 off 112 balls drew scrutiny because of the nature and timing of the dismissal. It was totally avoidable and needless, as the lunch was just three deliveries away.
India suffer another batting collpase
England got the spark they needed to make a comeback, and the loss of momentum cost India dearly in the second session. Rahul, who was on 98 at the break, managed to get to his second century of the series straight after the Lunch break but lost focus and was dismissed for 100. The two dismissals in the space of six runs proved to be the turning point as India squandered the initiative after a commanding start.
Though a half-century from Ravindra Jadeja helped India equal England’s score of 387, India had the chance to finish the first innings in a decent lead had Pant not gifted his wicket away to England.
Pant was in the spotlight again in the second innings. The Delhi dasher, battling a finger injury, joined Rahul at the crease on Day 5 with India needing a solid partnership to steady the innings after losing four wickets (Yashasvi Jaiswal, Karun Nair, Shubman Gill, Akash Deep) for 58 in the final session on Day 4.
The left-handed batter looked uncomfortable at the crease due to his injured hand and scored 9 runs during his painful 12-ball stay, which was ended by a corker of a delivery by Jofra Archer. Pant’s wicket opened the floodgates as India lost three more wickets in a torrid morning session.
Before the fourth Test begins in Manchester on July 23, India would aim to learn from the mistakes from the first and third Tests and make the opportunities count they have created for themselves by playing good cricket.