2nd Test, Lord's, Aug 12 - 16 2021, India tour of England

Cricket Highlights & Scorecard

Day 1

Having been asked to bat when they wanted to bowl, and having negotiated rainy and overcast conditions, India finished day one at Lord's looking healthy in all respects - on score, on scoring rate, and on wickets in hand. Much of that was down to their unbeaten centurion KL Rahul, who walked off in bright sunshine, having played a part in two century stands.

That wickets-in-hand part was particularly significant after they decided to replace the injured Shardul Thakur with Ishant Sharma, effectively cutting their batting down to six specialists alongside Ravindra Jadeja. It was a bold move on many fronts, especially if they believed the dank conditions in the morning were more suited to their bowlers; it was either a show of faith or calculated pressure heaped on the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, who have struggled for form lately.

Whatever it was, it needed the openers to click, and click they did. Rahul and Rohit Sharma put on India's first century partnership outside Asia for the opening wicket since 2010 - 126, to set the tone on what turned out to be a glorious day for batting.

For the duration of that stand, Rohit was the star. As he has been on India's last few tours, Rohit was happy to leave and defend in the opening hour. When Sam Curran came on in the ninth over, he was briefly troubled by a front-foot plant across off stump to incoming deliveries. But he sorted that out in quick time - in a matter of minutes, really - and then put pressure on Curran with a giant 15th over that went for four boundaries. The best of these was a scrumptious push through point after jumping down the track to counter swing, and there was also a gentle flick to reinforce that the front-foot plant was gone. This helped get his batting flowing freely earlier than it has in recent innings, and contributed to him breaking a streak of scores in the thirties on this tour, World Test Championship final included. With all that out of the way, he brought up fifty, scored at close to four an over, and even showed a classic sign that he was on track for a big one: a hook that cleared fine leg.

Rahul looked assured at the other end, with his combination of soft hands and patience carrying on from the Nottingham Test. He ground it out while Rohit kept the scoring rate healthy, only opening up once he had lost his opening partner. In trademark style, this acceleration involved jumping down to England's spin option Moeen Ali and launching him back over his head, before bringing out a variety of punches - front and back foot - square on the off side. The show only got better later in the day, with England's tiring bowlers seeing a full stride from him as he leant into the kind of picturesque cover drives that he had avoided early on in a bid to play the ball as late as possible.

For about an hour to begin the day, England seemed to have hit their straps with James Anderson and Ollie Robinson sharing the new ball. But it soon turned out that Anderson was both their best attacking as well as defensive bowler. With Curran rattled early and Mark Wood - who came in for the injured Stuart Broad - lacking consistency in the early parts of his spell, it was shaping up to be a long day in the field for England.

Anderson was a late pick for England, given his quad troubles, and in the time between the end of his second spell and the start of his third - the 18th and 42nd overs respectively - it was easy going for Rohit. When Anderson did come back, Rohit was once again forced to think about his technique and after a brief period of scratching around, he was castled off one that nipped back to take the pad and then off stump. With 83, Rohit had made his highest Test score overseas.

Into that Anderson spell walked a nervy Pujara, first surviving an lbw shout, then an edge through the cordon, before eventually poking one to Bairstow in the cordon. Rahul took the bulk of the strike against Anderson in the lead up to tea, with Kohli at the other end. When they came back, Kohli was fiddly too, stepping a long way across his stumps for the first twenty-or-so minutes of his innings, before settling into a more usual rhythm.

Once again, after Anderson's spell, India were comfortable. Kohli started reaching out to play his big cover drives and connected with a few, and Rahul grew more and more assured as he approached his first Test century since The Oval in 2018. He brought that up with a confident cut to the backward-point fence, and the pair added 117 for the third wicket at 3.37.

It was Robinson who eventually dismissed Kohli, with the second new ball, with just over five overs left in the day, Root taking the catch at first slip and then trying to drum up some noise from the Lord's crowd. He might have been wondering, though, if the day would have gone differently had he elected to bat.

Day 2

It was more ebb and flow and less one-sided on day two as England counter-punched throughout to significantly limit India's chances of running away with an early advantage in the second Test. Spearheading the bowling effort once again was James Anderson, who became the oldest man in 70 years to take a Test five-for; he was aided much better on the day by the rest of the line-up, and together they made sure that India added only 88 to their overnight score of 276 for 3.

By stumps, England were 246 behind with Joe Root looking solid, after he had put up an encouraging stand with Rory Burns that came just in time as a potent spell from Mohammed Siraj threatened to put India on top once again.

The day couldn't have begun any better for England. Overnight centurion KL Rahul miscued a drive straight to extra cover off Ollie Robinson, second ball of the day, and Anderson had Ajinkya Rahane caught behind off the first ball next over to put an end to a 23-ball effort for India's vice-captain that yielded a single run. At 282 for 5, India were suddenly in danger of a rapid end to their innings as England made use of the overcast conditions far better than they had on the first day.The last recognised pair - Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja - did come good at that point, even if briefly in a 49-run stand. Pant played with typical panache, stepping out to slash over the bowlers, to pummel through the covers, and on one instance even stepping out and leaving a ball outside off. He was dismissed by Mark Wood, who would eventually go on to get Jadeja as well. India's last four wickets added 33, a laboured effort that took 16.1 overs of batting around an atypically subdued Jadeja, who was the last man out. That total of 364 signalled a move towards some parity in the game for England.

Burns and Dom Sibley looked resolute as they took England to tea, but India would punch back immediately after. They did that via Siraj, and with the use of a strategy they had developed earlier in the year on their Australia tour: the leg trap, a move that involved consistently slanting the ball into batters with packed leg-side fields that eventually proved to be a viable attacking as well as defensive strategy.

Siraj was the man entrusted to pull it off, attacking Sibley's middle and leg stumps until he induced a leg-side strangle that has become endemic for England's opener in a short career; he had chipped to midwicket at Trent Bridge, and he did it again on Friday after enduring 44 balls for 11. Next ball, India had three catchers in various orientations around midwicket, and that was enough to push the returning Haseeb Hameed to play down a middle stump line to a full delivery that rattled the base of off.

It became crucial at this juncture for England that Root would get through Siraj's spell unscathed, and the bowler didn't make it easy. He consistently challenged Root's inside edge with a sustained attack at the stumps. On two occasions he came close to trapping him lbw; on both, Virat Kohli made reluctant reviews that showed the ball was sliding down leg side and India burned two reviews quickly. With the second one, he was visibly distressed with wicketkeeper Pant, seemingly for being too late in telling him that the review wasn't on.

Funnily enough, it was a Siraj over that did eventually release the pressure off England. The 27th over went for three fours, all of them from Burns, who drove neatly past mid-off and followed it up with consecutive pulls to the midwicket boundary to jump from 19 off 78 to 31 off 84. It also managed to take Siraj out of the attack, and began a series of fours, including two from Root at the start of Ishant Sharma's next over. From 42 for 2 at the end of 26 overs, England swiftly jumped to 73 for 2 at the end of the 30th.

The pattern from there was much like that of India's in the last session of day one, with the sun peeking through the clouds and scoring getting easier. Soon enough, Kohli was forced to turn to Jadeja to tighten up one end in a bid to get to stumps without too much damage.

India did pull one back at the end, though: Mohammed Shami going around the wicket for a third wicket that involved the ball coming in at the stumps. Completely against the run of play, Burns was trapped on the back foot, the ball keeping a touch low as he looked to swish it into the leg side. He made it clear he wasn't pleased with that decision and it ended up costing England a review. But on the balance, at least from the point of view that India didn't make any massive strides after day one, England will have been the happier team at stumps.

Day 3

Joe Root made his fourth century at Lord's, and stretched it past 150 like he had the first three times, as a near-perfect display on Day 3 helped England take a slender lead against India. He was left stranded on 180 with England being bowled out off the last ball of the day. The 27-run lead capped off a gradual comeback from England in the match, which had begun by first bowling India out early on Day 2 and then battling through to stumps on a difficult evening. Exactly two days and two innings now remain for the teams to force a result.

Almost as if it were a reward for their work on Friday evening, England came out to the best batting conditions of the match so far on Saturday - bright sunshine and a flat pitch that they put to good use, starting with overnight batters Root and Jonny Bairstow. The pair put up their third century stand of the year, but this one was of a different flavour, with Bairstow playing a more prominent role. His most prominent role in two years, in fact, as England's No. 5 brought up his first Test fifty since 2019.

Bairstow took the lead early in the day, finding his groove especially on either side of the 50-over mark. England were striking at more than four an over at that stage and Bairstow's confident driving in the V started it all off. He then brought up boundaries through point and gully and his favoured square leg region and pretty soon India were already thinking conservatively.

That meant only two fielders in the cordon and a sweeper point fielder through most of the first session, alongside the early introduction of Ravindra Jadeja, India's go-to bowler for a defensive strategy. Every bit of that helped Root, who has been something of a one-man army for England lately. He ambled along, solid as ever, in what would turn out to be a flawless innings offering no clear chances to India.

For the most part, it was a typically delicate sort of innings from Root, punctuated with nudges and glances, and a handful of flicks through square leg. Not until the very end of the day did he attempt any overly aggressive strokes; when he did, they came off: a reverse ramp over the cordon, and a slog sweep to deep square's left off consecutive deliveries from Mohammed Siraj with England nine down. In the first two sessions, England scored at nearly 3.5 an over, and despite ending up 18 fours in a score of 180, Root finished the innings with England's best strike rate.

He continued being the one to hold England together as well, first with the 121-run stand alongside Bairstow, and then by adding 54 and 58 with Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali respectively. Those phases of play blunted any chance for India to turn the game around with the second new ball and ultimately helped England close in on the lead.

For India, it was Siraj who finished highest wicket-taker, but it was Jasprit Bumrah who had looked their best option when the day began. Bumrah would end up wicketless, but was the first to make Bairstow rethink his game. Bumrah had him hurriedly walking across the stumps, trying to protect both his stumps and his outside edge, as the scoring rate dropped down heading to lunch.

Then, India brought out a short-ball strategy against which Root was comfortable enough, but not Bairstow. After a few misses on the pull, he ended up going too early at a Siraj bouncer from around the wicket, offering a simple catch to Virat Kohli at first slip. With eight balls to go before the second new ball and England 135 behind, it was India's biggest chance to pry the innings open. But that wouldn't materialise as they battled both challenging conditions as well as their own indiscipline - in general, they erred too straight, or too short.

There was none of the ingenuity that they showed on Friday evening, apart from going back to the short-balls from time to time, as the strategy became plainly about making sure England didn't run away with the game. Eventually, that did pay off. Ishant Sharma, who had bowled a trademark nip-backer to hit the top of Buttler's off stump, managed to get Ali and Sam Curran off consecutive deliveries with England only 23 shy of the lead. The two left-handers fell identically, fencing at away-going deliveries in the corridor, and once again the prospects of a collapse opened in this Test.

But once again, there was a delay - if not downright resistance - because of the lower order. Ollie Robinson, Mark Wood, and James Anderson all survived about half-an-hour each for a combined 11 off 61 balls as their captain endeavoured to give them more to bowl at. India's extras helped - 33 in total, 17 no-balls - and it all added up to 50 runs for the last three wickets before Anderson, who was struck multiple times on the body through a nine-ball Bumrah over, was bowled off the last ball of the day.

Day 4

England managed to completely change the pace of the game, control it throughout the fourth day, and pushed India against the wall on a gripping day's play. Mark Wood, who began the Test struggling for discipline and recovered on the second day for two wickets, elevated himself another step as he forced India's struggling middle order into the game early by dismissing their openers before the visitors could get into the lead.

Wood went off injured late in the day after trying to save a run, tumbling at the third-man boundary, but was poised to come back in for the second new ball before bad light denied England's pacers a spell at India's tail and eventually brought the day to an end, with eight overs to spare. India had crawled to 181 for 6 in 82 overs by stumps, 154 ahead on a pitch that has changed flavour rapidly in favour of the bowlers.

A manifestation of that was the trouble Moeen Ali's offspin caused India late in the day. He troubled Rahane in particular, getting the ball to bite into the surface and cut the room for the batter's favoured back-foot punch some times, and sliding on past and underneath his bat on others. That natural variation had forced Rahane to chop aerially to Jonny Bairstow's right at point - only to to be dropped - before Ali managed to finally find the outside edge.

That brought India down to their last recognised batting pair of Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja. Ali managed to separate them as well, with a dream offbreak that squared Jadeja up to knock the top of his off stump. Jadeja's appreciation of a pitch that would allow such a delivery might have only come once he was back in the dressing room, for it was the last over before the second new ball was due. On an up-and-down pitch, England could have inflicted a second collapse of the day on India had the light held up.

The first collapse, that reduced India to 55 for 3, saw England take control of the game. Right from the start of the day, James Anderson went slightly shorter with his length than he usually does, with the new ball consistently getting big on KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma. The pair looked assured enough on the front foot once again, but Joe Root had seen enough to hand the ball to Wood as early as the sixth over. In the first innings, he had come on in the 20th, with the openers well set.

It paid off for Root, as Wood began clocking close to 150kph immediately, in addition to getting steep bounce in the channel. It proved enough to dismiss Rahul, who played slightly inside the line of one to edge behind.

Rohit makes no secret of enjoying extra bounce and pace, and once again he brought out his hook shot to clear the square-leg boundary to wipe out the 27-run deficit. Not long after, he invited another inquest into his shot selection, taking the hook shot on to find the square-leg fielder - one of three on the leg-side boundary - who had been sent back right before that ball.

Virat Kohli came out flowing, his first two scoring shots boundaries through the covers. This was in stark contrast to Cheteshwar Pujara whose role once again was to play for time at his end. It took Pujara 35 deliveries to get off the mark, drawing ironic applause from the crowd, but some calm seemed to have been restored to India's innings by then.

Enter Sam Curran. Before he got Kohli, he had gone through 37 wicketless overs in the series. But before he got Kohli, he had completely unsettled him. First with a relentless attack into his stumps from around the wicket, then the same with inswingers from over the wicket that included an unsuccessful lbw review, before completing the set-up by dangling one wide outside off stump for Kohli's third consecutive dismissal nicking off in the series.

At 55 for 3, India had Pujara and Rahane together, both of whom have been under considerable pressure recently. And it showed, as any thoughts of pushing for a big enough target seemed to fade away. To their credit, the pair batted nearly 50 overs together for a 100-run stand, having to face an English attack that brought a lot more variety and imagination to their plans than they had in the first innings.

The most daunting of those plans involved, at one point, a silly point, a forward short leg, a backward short leg, a catching backward square leg, and a fly slip as Wood came back for a fiery second spell of short-pitched bowling. In a manner reminiscent of India's Test at the Gabba earlier this year, Pujara copped blows to his body, the true extent of uneven bounce magnified by Wood's pace and direction. From the other ends, Anderson and Curran tested India outside off, while Ali was used increasingly to try and coax some attacking shots from them.

Rahane did bring some of those out, stepping out to loft him over mid-on, and even employing the sweep as he battled to a fifty. Pujara, in the meantime, was gathering more ironic applause; he was on 12 off 100, then 40 off 200. Eventually, he took Wood on with a pulled boundary that brought up the century partnership. But the very next ball, another one climbed off a length and pinged his gloves, and there was little to do other than fending it to Root at second slip, who was standing close in on yet another day where edges didn't carry.

One hundred and fifty five for 4 turned to 175 for 6 with the wickets of Rahane and Pujara. England were set for a final push to try and finish India off when the umpires told them the day's play would end if a fast bowler came on in that light. A final bit of chaos - one way or another, with Pant in there - was thus averted, but the match is poised for plenty of similar action on the final day.

Day 5

Another overseas Test, another flourish from India's lower order. Jasprit Bumrah's day began as a batter in a hostile environment; by the end of the day, he and Mohammed Shami had turned the pressure around on England so swiftly and clinically that the hosts, who were in control of the game coming into the last day, folded in the final hour as India went 1-0 up in the series.

India were 154 ahead when the day began, with Rishabh Pant and the bowlers left to contend with the second new ball. For the first half an hour, everything went according to plan for England. Their relentless, disciplined attack at India on Sunday evening had set them up to go all guns blazing.

Pant has foiled a plan or two this year, including on England's tour of India in February, and he was priority number one. They got him early, when he nicked behind on the forward defensive. India were 167 ahead then, with three wickets in hand.

It was a big gamble they had taken on the first day to play four fast bowlers, bringing a pure bowler in Ishant Sharma to replace the injured Shardul Thakur while they had allrounders R Ashwin and Axar Patel on the bench. Given that reality, England couldn't have imagined what came next - a dogged resistance that took victory out of the picture, and ended on India's terms 104 runs later, ten minutes after lunch, when they declared after Shami and Bumrah had added 89 runs for the ninth wicket. England never recovered.

In the post-mortem, they'll identify their bowling to India's tail - particularly Bumrah - as the phase where everything went awry. Mark Wood, who had gone off with a shoulder injury on Sunday, didn't start the day on the field; he did, however, come back in, although not at full fitness, for a burst of short-pitched bowling. That seemed to be the plan from the other end as well, as England attacked India's lower order with intimidating bowling, ostensibly for the treatment they had dished out to James Anderson at the end of England's first innings.

The execution was good enough, but Bumrah and Shami weathered a storm that turned out in the end to be a major distraction for England from the job at hand. Bumrah, usually a genteel figure on the field, argued and battled on, wearing a few blows on the body. One of them hit him on the helmet and pinged in third man's direction, only for him to hold his hand up and deny a single, with two balls remaining in Wood's over. The clear message was that he was ready to take what he had previously dished out.

It was a message England didn't heed as bouncer after bouncer was delivered at the pair, to the point of the bowlers tiring out of sheer frustration, and eventually being unable to breach the defenses of Bumrah and Shami. When England attacked the stumps, they both picked off boundaries, and soon enough Shami was past fifty, bringing out his favoured heaves over midwicket against Moeen Ali.

India finished that opening session, having gone at more than four an over, and the possibility of a win was now distant for England.

Bumrah and Shami remained the protagonists in India's script, nabbing Rory Burns and Dom Sibley for ducks in the first two overs to seize complete control of the match. Haseeb Hameed and Joe Root had to face four bowlers in 15 overs before Ishant - India's hero the last time they won at Lord's - was introduced. Ishant struck immediately, catching Hameed deep in the crease with an inducker. Jonny Bairstow didn't look nearly as assured as he had in the first innings during his brief stay, and Ishant trapped him in front as well - with an assist from DRS - to pin England down to 67 for 4 at tea.

And so, once again, England's fortunes seemed directly dependent on how deep Joe Root would go in the game. Coming back after tea, the England captain knew he had to bat through a majority of the remaining 38 overs. But once again, Bumrah was around to foil his plans.

Root only lasted until the third ball after tea, stabbing one to Virat Kohli at first slip, leaving England's flamboyant line-up of batters - Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran - with a steep task.

A majority of the work India put in to remove the trio might have ended in the 27th over, but Kohli dropped Buttler off Bumrah, creating another plot in the thread that would threaten India until the final hour.

Mohammed Siraj, however, showed up, prickly and persistent as ever, to account for all three of them. Buttler and Ali hung around for close to 16 overs before Siraj had got the latter edging behind on the angle; next ball, he inflicted a king pair on Curran.

With just the bowlers to come in, India's chirp turned into raucous chatter. Ollie Robinson had to take most of it - staring, encircling, unrelenting pressure between balls from the moment he came in. During his brief stay alongside Buttler, it seemed to stir him on. He got more and more resolute, in congruence with Buttler, and soon enough the sun had come out over Lord's. Their vigil took England into the final ten overs of the 60 they had been asked to bat. And then they ran into Bumrah again.

Bumrah went around the wicket to Robinson, and sent two bouncers past his left shoulder, before slipping in an offcutter to flummox England's No. 9. It pitched just in line with the stumps, caught Robinson on the back leg in front of the wicket, and returned three reds when India reviewed it.

The clock had begun ticking as soon as it happened. Siraj replaced Ishant, and Buttler's nerves showed immediately as he fenced one in the channel to Pant. Anderson received a similar welcome to Robinson, but he would not be worried with any short-pitched bowling; Siraj went full, and knocked his off stump in the same over to seal the win for India.

Purposeful, tactical bowling - which England had done for the most part as they came from behind in this Test - finished them off.