I have mentioned that India will tour England in
August this year. As the first test was a draw, the second test at Lord’s just
showed the beauty of Test Cricket. England won the toss and elected to bowl
first. Seeing the weather conditions, India got what they wanted because there
was no chance of rain and it was expected that there would be sunlight after
one or two sessions and after one or two days the pitch would be a good one for
spinners.
Before the play there was 15 – 20 minutes of rain
and after the rain stopped play got started. Indian openers did a 100 – run
partnership which was the first by Indian openers at Lord’s after 1952. Rohit
Sharma at 83 got out to and absolute beauty from James Anderson. In that
session only India lost out of form Cheteshwar Pujara with an out swinging ball
of Jimmy Anderson. KL Rahul and Virat Kohli played the rest of the session and
Rahul completed his fifty. After tea, KL Rahul started playing fast and his
target was to complete his hundred. He achieved his target and scored a
magnificent hundred. Virat Kohli was also playing well on the other end but
nicked one on slips of the ball of Ollie Robinson. At the end of the day, India
was 276 at the loss of 3 wickets.
Day 2, India lost KL Rahul in just the second
ball of the day. He tried to play a cover drive but was caught at covers of the
ball of Ollie Robinson. In the next over, Ajinkya Rahane also nicked one to the
slips of the ball of Jimmy Anderson. It was Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja
who stabled the innings after that but their partnership couldn’t stay longer
as Mark Wood took the wicket of Rishabh Pant. He generated his extra pace and
Pant tried to cut it but was late and the ball touching his outside edge went
straight to Jos Buttler. Then Ravindra Jadeja and the long tail of India got
out in the next 33 runs. India was all out on 364. India’s highest run scorer
was KL Rahul with his brilliant 129. England openers were steady at the crease
before Siraj took two wickets in two consecutive balls. First it was Dom Sibley
and then it was the debutant Hasib Hameed. Sibley tried to play the flick shot
but played it to the short leg fielder. Hasib Hamid bowled and got a golden
duck. Joe Root and Rory Burns were playing well. At the end of the day’s play
Jasprit Bumrah took the wicket of Rory Burns at 48. He edged the ball and it
went straight to Rishabh Pant.
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