London: Fast bowlers made the most of the new ball yet again in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series to help India leave England in trouble at 98/4 in 25 overs on day four’s play at Lord’s on Sunday.
It was a lively session of Test match cricket where India’s pacers hit good areas with the ball, got extra bounce and deviation to make life tough for England’s batters. That perseverance paid off as Mohammed Siraj picked 2-11, before Nitish Kumar Reddy and Akash Deep claimed one scalp each while Jasprit Bumrah was also at his mesmerising best to leave the crowd thrilled.
The morning session began with Bumrah getting one to kick up from a length and hit Crawley’s top hand. Bumrah makes an attempt to take the catch but it missed him by inches. If that wasn’t enough, an already rattled Crawley was almost trapped by a wobble ball from Siraj and India wasted a review as replays showed ball missing stumps.
Crawley then edged Bumrah past gully for four, before Ben Duckett scooped Siraj for another boundary. But in an attempt to pull Siraj, Duckett perished as he picked out mid-on to perfection. A fired up Siraj celebrated right in Duckett’s face with a ‘come on’, as India sensed their road to make breakthroughs was just starting to shape up.
With Bumrah causing trouble through extra bounce in deliveries from Nursery End, Siraj continued to make merry by trapping Ollie Pope in front with a wobble ball yet again. Once the on-field umpire said not out, Siraj convinced skipper Shubman Gill to take the review, where it showed the ball was crashing into top of middle stump, meaning that Pope was out for four.
Just after Joe Root brought up England’s fifty, Crawley was lured into a drive by Reddy, and the thick outside edge was caught easily by Yashasvi Jaiswal at gully, as the batter fell for 22. Harry Brook tried to launch a swift counter-attack by scooping Akash Deep for two fours, before unfurling a lofted drive for six.
But in an attempt to be funky against Akash, Brook went for a sweep, but loses his middle stump to fall for 23. Though Root (17 not out) and Ben Stokes (two not out) took England to safety till lunch break came, India will aim to make further inroads with the inconsistent bounce in play – though they could be challenged in that pursuit with the ball approaching its soft phase.
Brief Scores: England 387 and 98/4 in 25 overs (Harry Brook 23, Zak Crawley 22; Mohammed Siraj 2-11, Nitish Kumar Reddy 1-20) lead India 387 in 119.2 overs (KL Rahul 100; Chris Woakes 3-84) by 98 runs
(IANS)
