Seven explosive moments that lit up England vs India thriller at Lord’s
England’s 22-run victory in an ill-tempered third Test has set this series up as a classic
England’s 22-run victory in the third Test against India at Lord’s was one of most dramatic contests of the Bazball era.
The heavyweight slugfest ebbed and flowed over five days of absorbing cricket until England, powered by a superhuman effort from captain Ben Stokes, got over the line in the final session of the fifth day.
Former England captain Nasser Hussain was in no doubt about the significance of this often-ill-tempered match, saying on Sky Sports: “That was great advert for five-day Test cricket.
“It was hard-fought, at times feisty, but in the end played within the spirit of the game. That was the best five days of Test cricket I have seen in some time.”
Here The i Paper looks at seven moments where this ding-dong battle was won and lost…
KL Rahul drops Jamie Smith
The India opener would possibly have been man of the match had his team won given his first-innings century.
Yet his drop from second slip on day two when Smith was on five – a regulation chance off Mohammed Siraj – now seems costly given England’s wicketkeeper-batter went on to score 51.
The 46 runs he added after that life were more than double England’s winning margin.
Jofra’s dream return
After four years away from Test cricket, Jofra Archer’s dismissal of Yashasvi Jaiswal with his third delivery of the match was a moment to savour.
Squaring up the left-handed opener with an 89-miles-per-hour delivery, Harry Brook took the catch at second slip to leave India 13 for one in reply to England’s first-innings 387 and spark a mad celebratory dash from Archer that kicked off a ferocious opening spell that saw him hit 93.6mph.
Stokes runs out Pant
With India cruising on 248 for three shortly before lunch on day three, Ben Stokes made a game-changing intervention when throwing down the stumps from cover point to run out Rishabh Pant, who was eager to get Rahul, on 98 at the time, back on strike so he could get his century before the interval.
“When you look back, that Pant run out in India’s first innings will be absolutely vital to this game,” noted Hussain after the match.
Bashir turns the tide
Rahul went on to score his century early in the afternoon of day three but almost as if he felt his work was done, he edged a drive to Shoaib Bashir one ball after getting to the landmark to open up India’s tail to a motivated England attack who would go on to ensure first-innings parity between these teams.
Zak attack
With England resuming their second innings late on day three, openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett were streetwise enough to ensure they would only face one over before stumps.
Using every trick in the book to waste time, including Crawley calling out the physio after claiming to be hit on the glove by Jasprit Bumrah, this was the moment the animosity between the teams boiled over.
Shubman Gill, India’s captain who’d stopped play for eight minutes earlier in the day for an on-field back massage, told Crawley to “grow some f**king balls”. The needle only spiralled from this point to add to the drama of a gripping contest.
Carse gets Gill
Gill had scored 585 runs across the first two Tests so his dismissal late on day four, trapped lbw by Brydon Carse, was a huge moment as India were reduced to 53 for three in their chase of 193.
Stokes then bowled nightwatchman Akash Deep with the final ball of the day set up a grandstand finish.
Stokes strikes his final blow
India looked dead and buried after Archer, removing Pant and Washington Sundar either side of Stokes’ dismissal of Rahul, had reduced India to 82 for seven 40 minutes into the final day.
Chris Woakes then removed Nitish Kumar Reddy on the stroke of lunch to leave India eight down with 81 still needed to win.
But it took Stokes, during a marathon 10-over spell after lunch, to separate a ninth-wicket stand of 35 that had reduced India’s required runs to 46 when he tempted Jasprit Bumrah into playing at a short ball.
With Ravindra Jadeja still in, it would take Bashir to remove Siraj to seal victory. But Stokes’ graft had put his side on the cusp of a famous win.
