Hosts in front after three Tests courtesy of tense 22-run win after dramatic fifth day
England have beaten India by 22 runs on a final day of simmering tension and high drama in the third Test at Lord’s to move 2-1 up in the series with two Tests to play.
Shoaib Bashir ended the hour-long resistance of Mohammed Siraj to seal victory, India’s No. 11 playing a defensive stroke before the ball trickled down the face of his bat and rolled on to the stumps, dislodging a single bail, as he watched on in horror.
As the England players celebrated, Ravindra Jadeja trudged off the field having made a valiant unbeaten 61.
The hosts had looked on course for a comfortable victory when they reduced India to 8-112 at lunch, but Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah battled for nearly two hours to inch their team towards a target of 193.
Jadeja was given out lbw to Chris Woakes on 26 but the decision was overturned on review prompting loud cheers from the many Indian fans in a near-capacity fifth day crowd.
England finally made the breakthrough when Bumrah (5) skied an attempted pull off Ben Stokes and was caught by substitute fielder Sam Cook.
Siraj (4) survived 29 deliveries as Jadeja farmed the bowling, but fell to Bashir off his 30th.
It was Bashir’s last act of the series. The left-arm spinner broke the little finger on his left hand while attempting a caught-and-bowled off Jadeja in the first innings and has already been booked in for surgery.
“It was great that ‘Bash’ was able to get that last wicket with everything he had to deal with this week,” said Stokes.
“He’s 21 years old and he’s got a very badly broken finger. It’s very disappointing for us as a team and for him, but I think the courage that he showed (was outstanding).”
Bashir batted in England’s second innings and Stokes added: “There would be a lot of people who might not have been brave enough to go out there and face Bumrah.”
First to commiserate with the distraught Siraj was Zak Crawley, who had been involved in an angry exchange with Siraj and other Indian fielders after time-wasting late on Saturday night.
That led to Siraj being given a demerit point and fined 15 per cent of his match fee by match referee Richie Richardson earlier on Monday for his send-off to Crawley’s opening partner Ben Duckett on Sunday morning.
Four demerit points in a 24-month period triggers a ban, with the 31-year-old Siraj now on two after his altercation with Travis Head in the Adelaide Test last December.
Duckett’s was the first of 14 wickets on Sunday which led to India resuming on Monday morning on 4-58, 135 runs short of victory.
Rishabh Pant, batting with a finger injury that had prevented him wicket-keeping, played an extraordinary one-handed straight drive for four off Archer to move to nine, but the fast bowler responded two balls later with an excellent delivery which uprooted his off stump.
Stokes snared KL Rahul lbw for 39 following a review, then Washington Sundar went for a duck, Archer leaping to his right to take a superb one-handed catch off his own bowling.
Jadeja and Nitish Kumar Reddy then frustrated England with solid defence in a partnership of 30 until Woakes found the edge of Reddy’s bat just before lunch.
It prompted an agonising afternoon for both sides, with the stakes high and the going slow. Ultimately though, as India edged towards an unlikely victory, it was England who emerged triumphant.
“A little bit tighter than I would have liked,” Stokes added.
