India were restricted to a first innings total of 364 on the second day of the second Test at Lord’s on Friday. The visitors resumed play on 276-3 with centurion KL Rahul (127*) and Ajinkya Rahane (1*) walking in to bat. But Rahul had to walk back to the pavilion after adding just two runs to his overnight total after Ollie Robinson dismissed him on the second ball of the day. Rahane, on the other hand, failed to make a mark once again after being removed on one run by James Anderson’s first delivery of the day. With two wickets in the first two overs of play, England got just the kind of start they needed. Significant contributions from Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja then took India to a total of 364.
At the end of the day’s play, England were on 119-3, with skipper Joe Root on 48 and Jonny Bairstow on six. Mohammed Siraj removed Dom Sibley (11) and Haseeb Hameed (0), before Mohammad Shami sent back Rory Burns for 49.
Let’s take a look at the major talking points from the day’s play.
James Anderson bags his 31st Test fifer
Pushing 40, James Anderson is still the world’s most fearsome pacer with an insatiable hunger for wickets. As was largely expected, it was once again Anderson doing most of the wicket-taking work for England. The fast bowler removed Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Ishant Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah to register his 31st five-wicket haul in Tests, which is the sixth-most by any bowler in this format. It is also only the second-most among pacers after Richard Hadlee, who has 36 fifers. Anderson, at the age of 39 years and 14 days, is now also the oldest quick to take five wickets in a Test since 1951.
India has always been Anderson’s favourite team to play against. England’s highest wicket-taker in Tests, Anderson has a whopping 623 wickets in 164 matches, and 127 of those wickets have come against India.
The bowler entered the Lord’s honours board for the seventh time on Friday, and the fourth time after playing against India. Anderson now has the most number of five-wicket hauls (4) for any bowler against India in Tests at Lord’s. His first five-wicket haul against the Men in Blue at Lord’s came in 2007, when he dismissed Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni and Zaheer Khan.
India’s middle-order crumbles again
While captain Virat Kohli has contributed runs sporadically in his last few Test outings, it is the form of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane that is becoming a concern for the Indian team. Both of the experienced batters gave away their wickets in identical fashion to Anderson in India’s first innings.
At Lord’s, India, from a strong position of 276/3, were dismissed for 364, with Kohli scoring 42, Pujara nine and Rahane managing only a single run. Pujara, who averages over 45 in his Test career, last scored a half-century (73) in February. In his following 10 innings, he has mustered only 108 runs combined. Rahane, on the other hand, has only two fifties since his century against Australia in December 2020. The performance of the duo has come under the scanner, with fans and experts expecting more from them.
“Pujara and Rahane are the real worrying signs, especially the manner in which they are getting out. They are senior players so it’s obvious that they know their game well. But in this case, it all comes down to temperament and how they come out of it,” former India pacer Ashish Nehra said on the Sony Sports Network.
Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja help India cross 300 runs
After finishing Day 1 at 276/3, India lost their next seven wickets for only 88 runs, most of which came from Jadeja and Pant. The keeper batsman, who shared a 49-run partnership with Jadeja for the sixth wicket, scored 37 off 58 balls, during which he hit five boundaries and also achieved a new record. During his knock, Pant completed 1000 overseas Test runs in 29 innings, and became the fastest Indian keeper to do so. Former captain MS Dhoni scored 1000 runs in 32 innings while Farooq Engineer did it in 33 innings.
Jadeja, on the other hand, chipped in with 40 runs, finding the boundary thrice. Later in the innings, Ishant Sharma too showed some resistance by scoring eight of 29 deliveries.
An evenly poised game
While India will certainly rue their batting collapse on Day 2, the match looks evenly poised after the end of the day’s play. At stumps after the second day’s play, England were 119 for the loss of three wickets after batting for 45 overs. Opener Rory Burns scored 49 before being removed by Shami. Mohammed Siraj, then, struck twice to send back Dom Sibley and Haseeb Hamid, but the pacer also cost India two lost reviews. In the middle at stumps was Root on 48, eyeing his 51st Test half-century on Day 3. During his knock, Root went past Graham Gooch to become England’s second-highest run-scorer in Tests. Gooch aggregated 8,900 Test runs in his career while Root has 8935 runs, which includes his overnight tally of 48*. The skipper scored a half-century and century in the first Test against India and with much of England’s batting load on his shoulders, Root will be looking for another long innings tomorrow.
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