IND vs ENG, 3rd Test, Day 4: Siraj, Sundar shine as Lord’s finale beckons

Mohammed Siraj’s persistence, Washington Sundar’s spell, and a feisty English fightback shaped an edge-of-the-seat fourth day at Lord’s. <strong>Karan Pradhan</strong> reports.

Jasprit Bumrah picks his 2nd wicket of the innings. Photo via BCCI

Published after stumps at Lord’s, this special edition of #MidMatchMemo offers a full match report — capturing every twist, turn and talking point from Day 4 of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.

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ON THE HOUR MARK of the fourth day’s play came a wonderful bit of cricketing magic. After some hostile bowlers, Mohammed Siraj made a minor modification to his line and trapped Ollie Pope on the crease and as he tends to, appealed vociferously for LBW. Umpire Paul Reiffel turned down the appeal. But Siraj was not to be deterred. Adamant that the height of impact wasn’t an issue, he implored his captain Shubman Gill to review the decision.

It’s worth bearing in mind that in the seconds that the skipper was giving this proposition a thought, he must have had the previous DRS review in the back of his mind. After all, Siraj had been equally vocal about an LBW appeal a few overs prior, and had lost his team a DRS review in the process. Despite all that, Gill backed his bowler and asked for a DRS review. This time, replays confirmed that the ball was going on to hit the wickets and Pope’s innings was over with the score on 42/2. One hundred and fifty runs later, England’s innings was over.

The Lord’s Test that hung very much in the balance overnight had swung firmly India’s way. But by the end of Sunday’s proceedings, things had returned closer to a state of equilibrium. The visitors are 135 shy of the target with six wickets in hand and Monday is set to make for some must-watch cricket. The visitors will return to the field on 58/4 with KL Rahul and presumably Rishabh Pant facing up to the English bowlers on Monday morning. The home captain Ben Stokes knocked over nightwatchman Akash Deep’s off-stump with what ended up being the final ball of the day.

With matters entering the business end of the Test on its fourth day, there were plenty of pivotal moments that might go on to influence the outcome. Chris Woakes dropped Rahul off his own bowling when the latter was still on only five runs. A wicket at that stage would’ve reduced India to 9/2, and really put the pressure on the visitors. The Indian opener would go on to make the most of the reprieve instantly by smiting the next two balls to the cover boundary. And with that, it seemed like he was set to compile another big innings. Unfortunately, no one seemed to have sent that memo to his partners: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Karun Nair and Gill returned to the pavilion without putting too many on the board.

Earlier in the day, Washington Sundar’s double strike to remove the dangerous Joe Root and (in this series anyway) even more lethal Jamie Smith over the course of 11 balls was another of the key moments of the Lord’s Test. Right after the tea break, he would dismiss Ben Stokes and drive another nail into the coffin of the English second innings. And he’d finish up with the wicket of Shoaib Bashir. Making the most of a pitch that was turning increasingly slower and gripping more, Sundar was crucial in India’s effort to keep the hosts down to a seemingly paltry 192 runs — the lowest innings total in the series so far.

Despite the relatively tiny target, England came out firing on all cylinders. Jofra Archer replicated his first innings feat of dismissing Jaiswal in his very first over. Then just when it seemed as though the visitors were set to stroll to victory, Brydon Carse decided to make his presence felt by swiftly sending back the Indian Number 3 and the skipper. A feisty final quarter of an hour set the stage for what should be an explosive finale.

The groundwork for India’s excellent bowling performance in the previous innings had been laid by a scorching opening spell from Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, with the latter accounting for the early wicket of Ben Duckett. Pope and John Crawley dug deep to weather a period of high quality seam bowling — one of the rare ones in this match where nearly every ball looked like it could produce a wicket. And so it proved, with Pope the first to succumb, and Nitish Kumar Reddy inducing a mistake from Crawley.

England were looking shaky at 50/3, before Harry Brook and Root came together. Unfortunately for the hosts, Brook lost his middle stump after trying one cute improvisation too many. This will have stung for England because he and Root had put on a useful 37-run partnership that had the potential to yield many more. India had bossed the first session on Sunday, and had England under massive pressure with only 98 runs on the board and six wickets in hand. But, the gap between the two sides was a great deal narrower by stumps.

On a different note, the Pant/Dhruv Jurel double-act is certain to raise questions about the rules regarding substitutes in Test match cricket. It may be recalled that Pant was forced to leave the field after copping a blow to the left hand. This saw the introduction of Jurel as a like-for-like substitute. When it was India’s time to bat, Pant strode out to the middle and scored a very handy 74. At the start of England’s second innings, however, it was Jurel who took up the position behind the stumps. Should he end up keeping wickets for the entire English innings and then make way for Pant when it’s time to bat, it could be argued that India used 12 players (including a rotating substitute) in the game. What, if anything, the ICC makes of this is anyone’s guess.

Karan Pradhan is editor-in-chief of Story Mode a gaming and gaming-adjacent magazine. Follow him on X/Twitter @karanpradhan_

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