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Heartbreak at Lord’s: Jadeja fights before close loss
Jadeja’s stubborn resistance almost took India to an unlikely win before England claimed victory in the final session of third Test
Mumbai: The difference between winners England and India was 22 runs, but if you take grit and resolve into account, both teams proved equals. The play on a fascinating final day showed that Test cricket can challenge you in ways undreamt of. The slow grind, the marathon spells, the unexpected stand and finally, the heartbreaking defeat.
In the end, it was off-spinner Shoaib Bashir, bowling with a broken (non-bowling) hand, who produced a delivery that Mohammed Siraj (4 off 30 balls) seemed to defend well before it rolled back onto the stumps to take down one of the bails after tea on the final day’s play at Lord’s.
England won the third Test to take a 2-1 lead in the series, bowling India out for 170, but they know that winning the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy will not come easy.
As a distraught Siraj sat on his haunches, the England players, having completed their celebrations, came over to console him. There would be no consolation but it was nice to see that after five hard days on the field, sportsmanship was the order of the day.
Player-of-the-match Ben Stokes exchanged a hug with Ravindra Jadeja (61 not out off 181 balls), who with his 266-minute stay threatened to do what appeared impossible at lunch on when India were tottering on 112/8, still 81 runs adrift of their target.
A sizeable contingent in the crowd wearing blue had thronged to the ground, hopeful that India would chase down the required 136 runs to make it a third Test win in four matches for India at the iconic ground. Even though they would have admired the fight, the result would have hurt.
Within the first 35 minutes of the final day’s play, England took two key wickets of Rishabh Pant (9) and KL Rahul (39) to snuff out India’s fire.
Jofra Archer got a fiery delivery to straighten from around the wicket to send Pant’s off stump cartwheeling. Then, Stokes bowling one of his many marathon spells, accounted for Rahul, after getting one to jag back in sharply. The wickets continued to tumble before the Jadeja-led fightback brought the match alive again.
Fourth-innings run chases can be tricky especially on deteriorating pitches. But the 22 yards at Lord’s did not break as much and except for the uneven bounce, batting was not impossible and that is why India would reflect on the many might-have-beens.
There were two passages of play with the bat in each innings which cost them dearly. Should Pant have risked the extra run to try and help KL Rahul to his hundred before the lunch break in the 1st innings?
“Definitely,” Gill said at the presentation when asked if the run out proved crucial. “At one point I thought if we get a lead of 80-100, it might be crucial. We knew on the fifth day on this wicket, it won’t be easy to chase 150-200.”
Asked if an individual milestone came in the way of team interest, the Indian captain said it was more an “error of judgement” from the two. As it turned out, KL Rahul also got out on exactly 100 and the flourishing partnership that was wearing down England came to a premature close.
If India had shown more spunk at the start of the 2nd innings, they wouldn’t have finished Day 4 on 58/4 after being 41/1 at one stage.
“The last one hour that we played (Day 4), I think we could’ve applied ourselves a bit better, especially the last two wickets that fell,” Gill said. “Even this morning, the way they came up with a plan, we were hoping for one 50-run partnership. If we got it from the top order, it would’ve been easy for us.”
One of the two wickets Gill referred to was his own. He came into the match having scored a mountain of runs in the series but, faced with a baptism by fire on Sunday evening, he failed to get going.
It was an ungainly little stay where the young skipper missed more than he played. His batting control percentage turned turtle as he missed even a few full deliveries. Soon enough, England found a gap between bat and pad, which they had been searching for all series. It’s difficult to say if pressure got the better of Gill but there are lessons to be learnt here.
As India take stock, they would also look closely at their second innings batting collapse (6/41). In the Leeds Test, twice they lost wickets in a heap (7/41 and 6/31).
Blessed with a quality bowling attack, which again put its hands up, frequent batting collapses have undone the hard work. It is a big reason India are left with the arduous job of lifting themselves again come the fourth Test.
