A grandstand finish is on the cards in the third Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy Test at Lord’s as England ended day four by having India reeling at 58/4 in 17.4 overs, in a chase of 193 on Sunday.
On a day where 14 wickets fell, off-spin bowling all-rounder Washington Sundar used his drift and accuracy well to pick a brilliant 4-22 and end England’s second innings at 192 in 62.1 overs. Joe Root was England’s top-scorer for the innings with 40, but once he was castled by Sundar before tea, the hosts’ suffered a chaotic collapse to go from 154/4 to 192 all out.
Apart from Sundar’s four-fer, Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah took two wickets each in sharp spells, while Nitish Kumar Reddy and Akash Deep had a scalp each, as India did an excellent job of striking with the new ball, including extracting inconsistent bounce, and not allowing the lower order to launch a fightback.
Requiring 193 runs to win and go 2-1 up in the five-match series, India lost four wickets, including three in the last 30 minutes – with Ben Stokes taking out Akash Deep on the last ball – to tilt the game in England’s favour ahead of day five.
India still have first-innings centurion KL Rahul unbeaten on 33 and they would want for him to stay till the end to knock off remaining 135 runs on a gripping and highly anticipated day five.
India didn’t have a great start to the chase as Jaiswal, who looked jittery in first over off Chris Woakes, fell for a seven-ball duck after skying a short and wide delivery straight up in the air and was caught by Jamie Smith off Archer’s bowling.
Rahul, who got off the mark by flicking Archer through fine leg for four, got a life when Chris Woakes couldn’t hold on to a catch off his own bowling. After that, Rahul looked settled with his backfoot punch, square drives and steering past gully with soft hands to take four boundaries.
But from the other end, England kept taking wickets – Karun Nair made an error of judgement in the leave and was trapped lbw after being hit right on the pads by a nip-backer from a brilliant Brydon Carse.
Skipper Shubman Gill never looked in control during his short stay at the crease and was struck on the knee roll by another nip-backer from Carse, with the ball tracking showing the ball would smash into the middle stump.
With the crowd egging England on, Stokes then got one to straighten past Akash’s outside edge and flatten his off-stump on the final ball to lift England’s spirits ahead of a big day five. In the morning, India’s fast bowlers made the new ball count yet again to trouble England’s batters.
Bumrah got one to kick up from a length and hit Zak Crawley’s top hand. He then attempted to take the catch but it missed him by inches. If that wasn’t enough, an already rattled Crawley was almost trapped by a wobble ball from Siraj and India wasted a review as replays showed ball missing stumps.
Crawley then edged Bumrah past gully for four, before Ben Duckett scooped Siraj for another boundary. But in an attempt to pull Siraj, Duckett perished as he picked out mid-on to perfection. A fired up Siraj celebrated right in Duckett’s face with a ‘come on’, with tension from day three’s final over still around.
With Bumrah causing trouble through extra bounce in deliveries from Nursery End, Siraj continued to make merry by trapping Ollie Pope in front with a wobble ball yet again. Once the on-field umpire said not out, Siraj convinced skipper Shubman Gill to take the review, where it showed the ball was crashing into top of middle stump, meaning that Pope was out for four.
Crawley was then lured into a drive by Reddy, and the thick outside edge was caught easily by Yashasvi Jaiswal at gully, as the batter fell for 22. Harry Brook tried to launch a swift counter-attack by scooping Akash Deep for two fours, before unfurling a lofted drive for six. But in an attempt to be funky against Akash, Brook went for a sweep, but lost his middle stump to fall for 23.
The post-lunch session saw Stokes and Root take England past the 100-run mark before the former took a boundary each off Siraj and Bumrah, who continued to find some inconsistent bounce. Luck was also on England’s side as they got extra runs via plethora of byes and Root surviving a close lbw appeal off Siraj, as ball tracking showed umpire’s call on brushing leg stump.
But Sundar came in to give India a massive breakthrough in the 43rd over – Root went too far across for the sweep shot and missed the ball drifting in, as it clattered the leg stump, thus ending his 67-run fifth-wicket partnership with Stokes.
An accurate Sundar came back four overs later to deceive Smith with away drift and rattle his off-stump to dismiss him for just eight, as India got another session in their favour. The final session started with Stokes getting a lifeline as Gill missed a direct run out chance from mid-on, before nailing a sweep off Sundar for four.
Stokes went for the same shot on the third ball of 55th over, but this time, Sundar got the delivery to sneak under the bat and castle him for 33. Bumrah then had his first wicket of the innings by castling Carse for just one with a sensational yorker hitting the base of leg-stump.
After getting pain-relief spray on right calf and getting a protective sleeve on it, Bumrah had Woakes cut in half with a nip-backer down the Lord’s slope castling him for 10. Sundar fittingly wrapped up England innings by using drift again to beat Archer’s outside edge and crash into the off-stump, with him also becoming the 12th England batter to be bowled in this Test. With England conjuring up magic to take four more scalps, it has set the stage for a finely poised finish to a gripping Test match.
Brief Scores: England 387 and 192 in 62.1 overs (Joe Root 40, Ben Stokes 33; Washington Sundar 4-22, Mohammed Siraj 2-31) lead India 387 and 58/4 in 17.4 overs (KL Rahul 33 not out; Brydon Carse 2-11) by 135 runs
