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India knock-out England at Lords
India tour of England, 2nd Investec Test: England v India at Lord's
Indian Team played all-round cricket and wrote history when the side - led by Ishant Sharma's career best 7/74 - defeated England by 95 runs to win at Lord's after 28 years and take 1-0 lead in the series.
India's overseas win drought ended finally after more than 3 years, the last one being in West Indies 2011.
This new generation of Indian players showed the perfect blend of skill and confidence to script a memorable win for the visitors. They played with heart & celebrated with passion as the locals stood up to take note of history being unfolded.
Indian pacer Ishant Sharma gave a stellar bowling performance that ripped through England's batting line-up in the 2nd innings. Ishant returned splendid figures of 7/74, his career-best in Tests,.
The tall pacer came into the series under some severe pressure to perform & his poor bowling figures in the warm-up games did not help him. But he never stopped backing himself.
Ishant (7/74), Jadeja (68 in 2nd innings & 3 wickets total) and B Kumar (52 runs in 2nd innings & 6 wickets in 1st) led the attack and forced England to cave in. Such was the affect that England - needing 214 on the 5th day and with 6 wickets to spare - failed to resist even remotely. It took them just a little less than 2 sessions to fold up the remaining batting & allow India to a systematic and, more importantly, historic triumph.
India on Brink of Historic Win
England v India, 2nd Investec Test, Lord's, 4th day
London India were on the verge of their 2nd Test win at Lord's, the 1st one being in 1986, as Alastair Cook's latest batting failure fumed the debate about his future as England captain.
England were 105 for four at stumps on Sunday's fourth day, needing a further 214 runs to reach their victory target of 319.
Joe Root was not out on 14 & Moeen Ali on 15 at stumps, after England lost 3 wickets for just 2 runs from 70/1 to 72/4.
Captain Cook fell for 22 off 93 to make it 27 innings since scoring the last of his England record 25 hundreds.
His departure came shortly after Ian Bell, the most experienced batsman in England's top order, had been dismissed for 1, his 19th innings without a Test hundred.
Fast bowler Ishant Sharma removed both Bell & Cook no runs in 7 balls.
At lunch, India were 267/7, a lead of 243.
But the 10 overs post lunch saw Jadeja and seamer B Kumar score 66 runs.
Jadeja made a rollicking 68 while Kumar was last man out for 52, his 3rd fifty in 4 innings this series after his best bowling figures of 6/82 in England's 1st innings.
Ajinka Rahane Controversial Dismissal BCCI's fault?
England v India, 2nd Investec Test, Lord's, 3rd day
After Liam Plunkett struck on consecutive deliveries to remove Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli, India needed none other than Ajinkya Rahane to steady the ship. Rahane came out to bat with a first innings century on his back and looked good for the very first seven balls the Mumbai batsman faced, but then came the shocker.
A rising delivery from Stuart Broad ricocheted off Rahane’s right elbow and popped up in the air with wicketkeeper Matt Prior running and diving forward to complete the catch, England fielders appealed and soon bowler joined in. A dreaded finger of umpire Bruce Oxenford went up and Rahane had a dejected long walk back to the pavilion.
It gets cruel when a batsman in prime form and fresh from hundred gets his innings cut short by an umpiring error. Rahane was quick and natural to show his dissatisfaction behind the decision as he walked past umpire. This is not new, in fact in first innings of this Test match England batsman Joe Root and Indian all-rounder Stuart Binny too were at the receiving end. Going back to first test there were few goofed decisions also.
While most of the Test playing nations prefer and take assistance from technology to aid umpires and use the Umpire Decision Review System India have decided against it. BCCI has continuedits stance against the UDRS and it has actually hurt Team India on field, with verdicts going against them at crucial times, like the Rahane one.
It is part and parcel of the game and umpires after all are humans, so any rare error in judgement istolerable, but if there is a technology on offer and that too when you are the richest cricket board in the world rejecting it is no way the shrewdest of the decisions. BCCI believes that UDRS is not 100% accurate, but it would have needed no ground-breaking technology to call back Rahane if review would have been in place. It is indeed a time BCCI put on their thinking cap and say yes to UDRS, at least we won’t have more Rahane like dismissals, that is for sure.
