On the concluding day of the second Test at the iconic Lord’s, India beat England by 151 runs in a game that what was one of the most exciting games between the two sides. Day five started with the Joe Root-led team getting to a good start in their quest to bowl India out as soon as possible. They removed wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant early in the day and would have hoped to restrict India to a lead under 200. But India’s lower order batters scored crucial runs to set England 272 runs to win. Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami scored 16, 34 and 56 runs respectively. After batting well, the pacers then bowled well as England were dismantled for 120 runs. Root, the star of England’s batting so far in the series, also perished for just 33 runs. Let us take a look at the important talking points from the game.
India’s tail chips in
“Bumrah, Shami, Siraj, Umesh and Ishant are putting in the effort in the nets and we’re hoping for some contributions from our tail-enders,” Ajinkya Rahane had said before the start of the series. The effort Rahane spoke about was seen both in the first and second Test.
In the first Test at Trent Bridge, the tail added 73 for their last three wickets after the middle-order collapsed, thus giving the team a 95-run lead. Similar grit was shown by the bowlers with the bat at Lord’s.
After Pant’s dismissal on 22 runs, it seemed like England were making their way back into the game. But much to the relief of the Indian fans, their lower middle order one again took up the onus of scoring runs. Ishant scored a 24-ball 16 during which he found the boundary twice. For Shami, his 70-ball 56 was the second fifty of his Test career. Bumrah chipped in with another good knock of 34 runs, after which India declared on 298/8.
A forgettable record for the England openers
England openers Rory Burns and Dom Sibley have not been able to do anything substantial in the series so far and their performance once again came under the scanner at Lord’s. Both the batters were dismissed for a duck on day five and entered the record books for the wrong reasons.
For Sibley, this was his tenth nought in 2021, thus making him the player with most noughts in a calendar year. Burn’s nought, on the other hand, was his fifth of this year, and he shares this record with former England and India captains Michael Atherton and Pankaj Roy.
Besides that, this was the first instance for England when playing a Test innings at home, both their openers were sent back for a duck.
India’s four-pronged pace attack delivers again
India’s decision to play four fast bowlers, which garnered some criticism, eventually proved right. Mohammed Siraj was the wrecker-in-chief in the final session, finishing with figures of 4-32. Mohammed Shami contributed with 1/13, while Bumrah and Ishant picked up five wickets combined. In all, the pacers picked up 19 wickets in Lord’s.
India’s third win at Lord’s
Getting the better of England at the ‘Home’ of Cricket is always a special achievement for any team. This is India’s third Test match win at Lord’s; they previously won here on the tours of 1986 (under Kapil Dev) and 2014 (under MS Dhoni).
“Coming to England, playing at Lord’s always has a hype about it. As a team and as an individual we look forward to it, especially after what happened in 2018. We lost really badly. So, we wanted to come back here and win the game. It will go down as one of our best. A win at Lord’s is always special,” KL Rahul told reporters after the game.
Some other highlights from the second Test
- This was the fifth time when India played a Test match on Independence Day and the first time that they won it.
- This was only the second time for India in the longest format of the game when spinners did not take a wicket in consecutive games.
- Virat Kohli is now the fourth most successful captain in terms of wins with 37 wins in 36 Tests. He follows Graeme Smith (53), Ricky Ponting (48), and Steve Waugh (41).
