Only time will tell if Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara had done enough on Sunday as their association of 100 runs for the fourth wicket, which arrested India’s slide and got them back into the contest, helped the visitors extend their overall lead to 154 runs, at the close of play in the second Test at Lord’s against England.
India recovered from a poor start to the second innings which saw their in-form openers KL Rahul (5) and Rohit Sharma (21) being dismissed cheaply and their star batsman and captain Virat Kohli falling for a brisk start, which left the team struggling at 55/3 at one stage.
India had begun on Sunday, the penultimate day of the Test, trailing by 27 runs in the second innings. All hopes were pinned on the pair of Rahul and Rohit to provide another strong start but Mark Wood struck in quick succession to dismiss the two, and Sam Curran piled further misery on India when he had Kohli caught behind for a 31-ball 20.
With a minimum lead of 29 in their kitty, India were firmly pushed against the wall with the pair of Rahane and Pujara finding themselves in the middle, tasked with the responsibility of building the team out of the trouble.
The two senior batsmen, however, did not disappoint.
Rahane and Pujara banished their woes in style and did what they do best — frustrate the opposition bowling attack by consuming plenty of deliveries while not giving them opportunities to make further inroads. It was only at the score of 31 when Rahane was given a lifeline as Jonny Bairstow dropped a catch at point off Moeen Ali. The India vice captain made most of the lifeline by completing his half-century.
Pujara and Rahane ensured that India were without any damage throughout the second session on Sunday, but it was in the final session of the day when things really turned against the visiting side and in the favour of the home team.
Wood returned into the attack and surprised Pujara with a bouncer that shot at him off the pitch, kissing the gloves of the batsman on the way and settling into the hands of the fielder at slip cordon.
Rahane was the next to fall, caught behind by Jos Buttler of mine after the India vice-captain had made a resolute 61 which was also the highest score for them on the fourth day on the Lord’s Test.
The likes of Ravindra Jadeja and Rishabh Pant have done so far well with the bat, but India were up to further misery later on in the session when Moeen struck once again, getting better of Jadeja’s defence to knock over his off stump and leave India struggling with only 140 odd runs in their lead.
There was some trouble for England as Wood returned to the pavilion for he suffered a swelling to his shoulder. In feeding light towards the end of the day, the home team wanted to use their fast bowlers which the umpires did not allow them to.
In the end, England took the option of walking off the field for the day and come back again on Monday, fresh and recovered and with the new ball in their hand.
India were 181/6 at stumps with Pant and Ishant Sharma (4*) at the crease, facing an inspired England bowling attack which will look to knock over the remaining Indian batsmen and set a smaller target for themselves and take a lead in the series.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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