LONDON: England stayed calm under intense pressure to beat India by 22 runs on a final day of simmering tension and drama in the third test at Lord’s on Monday and move 2-1 up in the series.
Shoaib Bashir bowled Mohammed Siraj for four to seal victory, India’s number 11 playing a defensive stroke before the ball trickled down the face of his bat and rolled on to the stumps as he watched on in disbelief.
Bashir was later ruled out of the rest of the series due to a fracture in his left finger, which he had suffered on Saturday while attempting a low catch during his own bowling. The 21-year-old is set for surgery later this week.
As the England players celebrated wildly, Ravindra Jadeja trudged off the field having made a valiant unbeaten 61 to take India to the brink of an extraordinary win.
“I probably bowled a few more overs than I thought I would but I am glad to get the win today on this special day,” England fast bowler Jofra Archer said.
“Honestly, I thought one of us would win by lunch. It dragged on a bit.”
The hosts had looked on course for a far more comfortable victory when they reduced India to 112-8 at lunch, but Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah battled for nearly two hours to inch their team towards a target of 193.
Jadeja was given out lbw to Chris Woakes by the umpire but the decision was overturned on review and the left-hander heaved the next delivery over mid-wicket for six, prompting loud cheers from the Indian fans.
England finally made the breakthrough when Bumrah, on five, skied an attempted pull off man-of-the-match Ben Stokes and was caught by substitute fielder Sam Cook.
The majority of the crowd erupted with a mixture of joy and relief but Jadeja continued to frustrate England, reaching his 50, off 150 balls, by edging Stokes over the slips for four.
Siraj survived 30 deliveries for his four runs as Jadeja farmed the bowling and took a succession of singles off the fourth ball of the over to dominate the strike.
Siraj suffered a painful blow to his shoulder after being struck by an Archer delivery and shortly afterwards his resistance was finally broken.
“To make a comeback like this was tremendous from Ravindra Jadeja and the lower order,” India captain Shubman Gill said.
“It was an anti-climax for us the way Mohammed Siraj went. We needed a couple of partnerships in our top order and that didn’t happen for us.”
ENGLAND’S MORNING
England had claimed four wickets in the morning to take charge of the match after India resumed on 58-4.
Rishabh Pant played a strange one-handed straight drive for four off Archer to move to nine, but the fast bowler responded two balls later with an excellent delivery which uprooted his off stump.
Stokes snared KL Rahul lbw for 39, the England captain dropping to his knees and imploring the umpire to give him out.
He refused to do so but England called for a review and the decision was overturned to huge cheers from the crowd.
Washington Sundar was next to fall for a duck, Archer leaping to his right to take a superb one-handed catch off his own bowling.
Jadeja and Nitish Kumar Reddy frustrated England with solid defence in a partnership of 30 until Woakes found the edge of Reddy’s bat just before lunch to give the hosts a huge lift as they left the field to warm applause from a packed crowd.
-Ed Osmond
