Ravindra Jadeja marshalled India’s No.10 and 11 batters for 35 heart-stopping overs and got his team to within touching distance of the victory target. But in the end, it was just too much for one man to do alone, and it is back to square one again for India, with two to play in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series.
Who would have thought that the Indian side which had scored more than 1000 runs in just the previous game, would fold up for a paltry 170 in the fourth innings of the next match, with seven batters failing to reach double figures. The fact that the first seven wickets to fall managed just 82 runs amongst them, whilst the last three contributed 88 and that the last two Indian wickets consumed 35.3 overs, while it had taken England just 39.3 overs to knock over the first eight, speaks volumes of the fight put up by the tail.
What Was Missing
Therein lies a tale of missed opportunities for the team to ponder over and rue. In the end it was just 22 runs separating the two teams. With a little more determination and application at the top, it should not have come to this at all.
Just one more contribution, one more small partnership and India would have been home and dry.
At the end of the third day’s play of the third Test, at the exact midpoint of this riveting series, the scores were level at one Test match each and an exact first innings tie of 387 runs each. Rarely if ever, has such a thing happened before in 148 years of Test match cricket.
This series has showcased much that is best about Test cricket.
But with just eight minutes remaining in the day’s play in the England second innings, came those ugly scenes that ruined the excellent spirit in which it has been played thus far. England tried to ensure that they did not face more than one over before close and with India wanting to get in at least two overs, the players clashed in an unseemly display of bad-tempered gamesmanship that left a bitter taste in the mouth that lingered for the rest of the match.
A completely avoidable, uncalled-for episode at the ‘Home of Cricket’, that will hopefully, not be repeated again.
England won the toss yet again on a hot, sunny morning at Lord’s and this time decided to bat, having put in India in the first two Test matches.
The Indian opening bowlers failed to make early inroads as England cruised to a comfortable 43 for no loss by the 13th over when Nitish Kumar Reddy came on to bowl as second change, with his military medium pace and gentle outswing.
Suddenly, the game burst into life in an unlikely first over, as he sent back both openers, Ben Duckett gloving a pull down the leg-side to Rishabh Pant and Zak Crawley with his Test Career on the line, edging a beauty that moved away just enough, as it went through to Pant.
He could have had a third wicket in that over, had skipper Shubman Gill not put down Ollie Pope at gully off the very first ball that he faced.
England progressed to a comfortable 153 for 3 in the post-lunch session, although run-making was slow by Bazball standards on a wicket where the ball was coming on slowly to the bat, against some tight, disciplined bowling.
Harry Brook tried to counter-attack, but Jasprit Bumrah, returning for a fresh spell, rocketed one through his defences and clipped the top of the stumps with a beauty that came back in sharply through the gate.
Joe Root and skipper Ben Stokes batted on tenaciously and 29 overs later, England ended the first day at a comfortable 251 without further loss, and Root one short of a stupendous 37th Test hundred, after some solid, old-school Test match batting.
He quickly got to his hundred the next morning, a disciplined innings that brilliantly typified his determination and commitment over the years. But Bumrah, as so often in the past, produced an inspired opening spell with the second new ball and soon got rid of both overnight batters with sharply angled deliveries that burst through their defences and shattered the stumps.
As if that were not enough, he had Chris Woakes edging the very next ball to the keeper, reducing England to 271 for 7 from their comfortable overnight score. Bumrah was suddenly on the cusp of another fifer that would take him past the great Kapil Dev for the record of the highest number of five-wicket hauls in away Test matches for India.
It also put him, very deservedly, on the honours board at Lord’s for the first time, with four of his five victims clean bowled, demonstrating yet again why he is the world’s best Test match bowler at this time. On any surface, against any opposition.
When India batted, Yashasvi Jaiswal fell early to Jofra Archer, who was returning to Test cricket after nearly four years, and the law of averages caught up with Gill as he went cheaply after his heroics of the last two Tests. KL Rahul was solid and reliable as ever at the other end and with Pant, he put on a magnificent 141 for the 4th wicket before Pant was unnecessarily run out. It was a brilliant bit of athleticism and direct hit from Stokes, who always seems to produce moments of magic to break partnerships when nothing else seems to be working for England.
Rahul duly got his second hundred at Lord’s, only the second Indian to do so after Dilip Vengsarkar. His classy innings was embellished by his trademark front-foot driving.
After their departure in quick succession either side of lunch, Jadeja provided the momentum that took the innings forward. High on confidence from his recent batting successes at Edgbaston, he was quickly away to his third successive fifty as he built partnerships with Nitish Reddy and Washington Sundar, as India finished level with the England first-innings total.
And then followed eight minutes of madness before close of play.
The England second innings, cruising comfortably at 154 for 4 at one stage with Root and Stokes at the crease, suddenly collapsed to 192 all out after tea on the 4th evening as Sundar picked up 4 for 22, bowling beautifully. That as many as 12 England batters were out bowled in this match is an indication of how well the Indian bowlers targeted the stumps.
Pursuing 193, India made heavy weather of what had seemed to be an easy run chase. All eyes were on Archer with the new ball and the uneven bounce at the Nursery End. Like in the first innings, he got rid of Jaiswal again in his first over, from a miscued pull top-edge that ballooned high up in the air.
At 5 for 1, it was an inauspicious start to the Indian run-chase. Things would have gotten infinitely worse had Woakes not spilled an easy return catch from Rahul, that he would have taken nine times out of ten. The top-order batter settled down and was unbeaten at close, on a day when India also lost Karun Nair and Gill disappointingly early.
Nightwatchman Akash Deep was eventually bowled by skipper Stokes off the final ball of the day, and India were a wobbly 58 for 4, still 135 adrift of their target, with plenty of batting to come.
On the fifth morning, the slide continued as India lost wickets in bushels and were soon staring straight down the barrel at 82 for 7, as Archer launched into a fiery spell, showcasing yet again how much of a difference the best bowlers can make at crucial times. Hopefully India will take note and bring in their best spinner Kuldeep Yadav for the next match.
Jadeja and Reddy held firm for a while, weathering excellent spells by Archer, Stokes and Carse. And India hoped against hope.
But Reddy fell at the stroke of lunch and India were eight down with miles to go. And suddenly, an England victory seemed just a matter of time.
So Close, Yet So Far
Then came the stirring fightback that had the whole of India worldwide on tenterhooks, as Jadeja refused to give in and No. 10 and 11 were equally firm in their resolve to stand with him. First, a fighting 35-run ninth-wicket stand between Jadeja and Bumrah, who contributed 5 but stuck it out for a remarkable 22 overs, raised hopes. Then an equally resolute Mohammed Siraj stayed on for another 13.2 overs, sharing a stubborn 23-run last wicket partnership that brought India heartbreakingly close.
In the end, however, the burden was too great for Jadeja to carry alone, although he battled on with great patience and determination, as he whittled down the target to less than 25, and in the process, got to a magnificent, fourth successive half century.
He showed what could have so easily happened with a little more application “specially on the fourth evening,” as skipper Gill said at the post-match ceremony.
The Indian team would be devastated with the loss. They had started this fourth innings chase as clear favourites and had enough batting depth to comfortably get themselves over the line with plenty to spare.
Lack of application and focus, and perhaps a hint of complacency, and a golden opportunity slipped through their fingers, as they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
And like the first Test, this was a match that they shouldn’t have lost.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author. The author is a veteran Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force, who has played Ranji Trophy for Services.
