At the start of Day 5, England had a much better chance for a victory. They had picked up 6 wickets & the lead was only up to 154. They needed to just pick up 4 wickets to wrap up the innings & considering India had gone in with four pacers, it meant that India were weaker on the batting front. At least that’s what our wisdom said.
The biggest stumbling block for England had to be Rishabh Pant & surely they put in a lot of planning in plotting his dismissal. He was greeted by in-out fields which was a good plan to contain runs as Pant would rarely hold back. After a few defensive shots, Pant made his intentions clear when he stepped out to Jimmy Anderson & smashed him to the boundary.
Everyone had their hopes pinned on Pant & that boundary only increased them further. But Alas it was not to be. Ollie Robinson made a breakthrough. The lead was just 167. It looked like with Pant, hopes of a historic win were also walking back. All that England now needed to do was to wrap up the Indian Tail which shouldn’t have been the most difficult task.
While they did put up some resistance in the 1st Test, the record still showed that they were one of the worst Tail out there which was lengthened by the inclusion of Ishant Sharma in place of injured Shardul Thakur. After Pant had got out, Mohammed Shami had walked in. Ishant & Shami added some crucial runs but still, the lead was only up to 182. If England managed to wrap up things quickly, even with their batting lineup, they would have fancied a chase of around 190 in almost 2.5 sessions.
All that may have been possible if England were focused enough to get that job done. But they had other plans. A plan for revenge ended up in them shooting themselves on their foot. Revenge for what? Revenge for Anderson. For context, in the last few moments of play on Day 3, Anderson, Number 11, was out in the middle with Joe Root who was batting really well. Jasprit Bumrah was called in to do a last burst to try & wrap the innings.
Bumrah decided to unleash a barrage of short balls mostly aiming at the body. Jimmy had a tough time negotiating that over. What made the matters worse for him was that there were many no balls in that over. So, it ended up being a 10 ball over. If it was anyone else, you might have some doubt about whether the No balls were deliberate but with Bumrah it’s been a problem that has been with him forever. In fact, he bowled 13 no balls in that innings.
Anderson eventually got out to Shami in the last ball of the day. But surely he wasn’t impressed by all that he was subjected to. He had a few words to tell to Bumrah & co. That’s the moment that changed the series & the way it was being played. This would end up playing an important role in the eventual result & tempers that flew around after Day 3.
Bumrah who walked out to bat after Ishant got out was treated with a barrage of short balls. It looked more & more like they were more focused to take revenge for what was handed out to Anderson on Day 3 than wrapping up the tail. This was backed up by some odd field placements & the total focus seemed on revenge. England had failed to recognise & realise that in all this they were giving up crucial runs & their chances of victory were vanishing right in front of them. They let their senses be overpowered by their emotions.
The plan had failed. It had backfired. The host broadcasters had even pointed out that in this period, England had a grand total of three deliveries hitting the stumps. They had let the match slip away. The damage was beyond repair & the draw started to look like the best possible result for them.
In all this, let’s not forget to give credit to Jasprit Bumrah & Shami. They braved the barrage & then, even went to use the opportunity to score crucial runs against a rattled opposition. They showed a lot of grit & application to stay at the crease. Yes, they were aided by a bit of luck but that’s the case with most of the test innings. After the first match, Virat Kohli had mentioned that the bowlers were spending more time in the nets to try & contribute some crucial runs to the team total and those efforts were coming to fruition here.
With every ball that they were playing, the shoulders of the opposition were dropping. They even played some gorgeous shots. Some of those drives were just top-notch. Any batter would have been proud of them. They were just piling misery on the English. After reaching a point of relative safety, Shami had begun to chance his arms. He had taken a particular liking to Moeen Ali. He got to his fifty by smashing Moeen into the stands and acknowledged the applause by taking off his helmet & raising his bat. It was some way to bring up his fifty.
Bumrah on the other hand was resolute in his defence. The whole incident had spurned him on. He played two gorgeous straight drives but unfortunately, both of them ended up hitting the stumps. After that initial period, he looked solid & none of the bowlers were able to trouble him. He did take a couple of blows to the helmet but still didn’t lose his concentration and put a price on his wicket. In a second match in the row, he ended up beating his previous best score.
At Lunchtime, when the duo of Shami & Bumrah reached the Lord’s Long Room, they were greeted with huge cheers by the whole Indian contingent. Later in one of his Vlogs, Ravichandran Ashwin revealed that the captain Virat Kohli had asked all of them to welcome the duo in such a way that the echo of those claps & cheers should be so loud that it reverberates in Lord’s for the years to come. The partnership then was off 77 runs. That partnership was one of the cornerstones of the victory that followed.
Bizarrely, India came out to bat again after Lunch & declared 9 balls later. While Virat reasoned that it was because they wanted to give a specific amount of overs to them but one can also bet on it being a mind game. In that duration, the partnership reached 89 off 120 balls. Those runs helped India to take a result out of contention i.e. England win. From here on, India would either win this match or draw it. These runs also ensured that India got to attack even more without being concerned about the runs. Thus, this partnership ended up being one of the big reasons that the victory at Lord’s was made possible.
