London: All the chatter on the way to Lord’s on Sunday morning was about the Wimbledon final to be played on the other side of the city. However, once inside, some exhilarating cricket took centre stage, with India calling the shots for most of the day before England threw some powerful punches in the last hour of the day to set the visitors back. It was the Indian pacers who were sending down the hot serves straightaway. England struggled to return blows with the bat as they folded for 192 with an hour and half left in the day’s play. However, the home pacers then produced their most threatening spell of the series to have India reeling at 58/4, still 135 runs away from taking the lead in the series, when stumps were drawn.Tempers flared again on the fourth evening, with KL Rahul and night watchman Akash Deep repeating England’s act of wasting time. Joe Root got into the act to egg the vociferous crowd on and the high-octane battle ended with England captain Ben Stokes uprooting Akash Deep’s stumps. The pitch woke up from slumber and made for the toughest batting conditions so far in this series. Much of the credit for that can be cornered by Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj’s relentless attack on the England batters in the first hour of the day.Bumrah softened the batters with balls that spit off the pitch and flew past the noses of English openers. Both openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley looked like they were living on borrowed time. Bumrah and Siraj finished with figures of 2/38 and 2/31 respectively and laid down the template on how to bowl on the devious fourth-day pitch.Washington Sundar reaped the benefits of the pressure created by the early-morning burst. The off-spinner stayed true to his line and length by removing Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jamie Smith and Shoaib Bashir in the last session to kill any chance of an England resurrection. All four of his wickets were bowled. Seven English batters were dismissed bowled and one was LBW. India had successfully executed their plans.
In effect, Bumrah and Siraj turned back the clock to Lord’s 2021. Their precision and relentlessness exerted immense pressure on the English openers. After 40 minutes of play, just as when one thought India were out of luck, Siraj got Ben Duckett out to a desperate shot.It was high-octane cricket again after three days of slow burn. The temperature was considerably lower after three days of hot weather. Siraj and Bumrah turned up the heat on English batters. Bumrah was plain unlucky to go wicketless from the Nursery End after bowling for an hour. But when Siraj removed Ollie Pope LBW, the floodgates opened.All of captain Shubman Gill’s plans worked. Nitish Kumar Reddy surprisingly bowled ahead of Akash Deep, and sent back Crawley, with Jaiswal at gully pulling off a stunning catch.
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Just as Harry Brook was getting started with his counterattack, Akash Deep knocked his stumps over as he attempted a fine sweep. When Root and Stokes tried to regain control through measured and riskless batting, Washington found a way of hitting their stumps when they tried to break free with sweep shots.Crawley’s antics to delay proceedings last night may have spurred the Indian team on. They were not going to offer any respite. They were in the ears of the England batters and barely moved away from the plan of attacking the stumps.That Root and Stokes batted 22 overs to score 67 runs is testimony of India’s impeccable discipline. England’s most experienced batting pair could not find a way to put the pressure back on India’s bowling. They were tied to the crease, playing for survival. Root was the highest scorer with the bat with 40 off 96. Stokes’s grind of 33 off 96 ended with an ugly slog sweep off Washington. England got some breather with substitute wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel, keeping in England for the first time, conceding 25 byes.
