LONDON: The sellout Lord's crowd thundered and bellowed every ball defended by the Indian tail and every single Ravindra Jadeja took. A riveting session of Test cricket was on. The first session belonged to England. Four wickets fell and India were reeling at 112 for eight. In came Jasprit Bumrah, known for his bowling exploits. India's hopes were almost shattered. Then the rearguard action began.
Jadeja was batting to steer India over that elusive victory target of 193 set by England on Sunday. No one would have thought the match would stretch beyond tea. But it did. In the end, Bumrah played 54 balls for five runs and later Mohammed Siraj played 30 balls and bridged the gap to just 22 runs. And just when hopes glistened and danced in the distance in the afternoon sun, Siraj got out. The two along with Jadeja batted for more than two-and-a-half hours. Lord's, the home of cricket, couldn't have asked for more.
Test cricket is all about winning sessions. One cannot stop striving for more until the match is over. A team cannot afford to lose the grip over a contest, no matter how dominant they have been, as one slip-up can cost them the match.
That reality must have hit the England camp hard on Monday even if they had finally won the match to take a 2-1 lead in the series. Ben Stokes and Co on the fifth and final day of the third Test at the Lord's Cricket Ground did exceedingly well to floor India in the morning session. Reeling at 112/8 and with two more sessions remaining, India was all but out of the match. They still needed 81 to cross the line with Ravindra Jadeja the only recognised batter at the crease.
The Saurashtra all-rounder, however, had different plans as he along with tail-enders Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj came up with stiff resistance to take the game to the last session. An unfortunate dismissal of Siraj ended the resistance as India fell short by 23 runs but Jadeja's heroics with valuable support from Siraj and Bumrah made sure they didn't go down without a fight.
The morning session was always going to be crucial when the India batters KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant took the field. With India still needing 135 to win, the most successful Indian pair on English soil in the longest format of the game had to see off the incisive spells from captain Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer, who replaced Brydon Carse, the home team's most successful bowler on the penultimate day, from the Pavilion End to join his captain.
At the end of the day's play on Sunday, the talk was about whether the wicketkeeper-batter Pant will join Rahul or the team management decides to send in another option. Pant, who injured his left index finger on the first day of the match, hardly kept wickets for his team, with his replacement Dhruv Jurel doing the work. He batted brilliantly in the first innings scoring 74 despite pain but the situation was altogether different on Monday morning.
But Pant came out and started with a single off Stokes. His 12-ball stay at the crease, however, was less convincing as he looked in immense pain pulling his bottom hand off the bat four times in an Archer over where the pacer was bowling at around 144 kmph. No doubt Rahul, his trusted partner was there for company, but Archer was unrelenting with his pace and accurate line and length. Every ball the Delhi batter faced turned out into an event and in the end it was the bowler who came out triumph. Pant was late as the ball shattered the woodwork and the stump went cartwheeling.
The onus was now on Rahul not only to prevent further damage but also make sure the scoreboard keeps ticking to deflate the highly-motivated and pumped up England pacers. But then Stokes produced a dream delivery which took an otherwise calm and composed Rahul by surprise. Pitched outside the off stump, the ball veered in and thudded into Rahul's pads. The umpire was unmoved but England reviewed and they were right as the Karnataka batter departed and so the hope, almost.
It was Washington Sundar's day out with the ball on Day 4 but Monday turned out to be completely different as Archer took a brilliant return catch to send him back for a duck and reduced India to 82/7.
Jadeja and Nitish Kumar Reddy then batted for almost 15 overs (89 balls to be precise) adding 30 runs to keep the hope alive but Chris Woakes induced a nick from the latter at the stroke of lunch as England inched closer to a famous victory.
Jasprit Bumrah, however, with Jadeja kept Stokes and Co waiting for more than two-and-a-half hours as they played out 22 overs scoring 35 runs in the process. The England captain broke the partnership to end the resistance from the Indian pair.