DAY 2 – LUNCH, 3RD TEST
Smith got his third fifty-plus score in succession © Getty
India picked up three key and quick wickets through their ace speedster Jasprit Bumrah at the start of Day 2 at Lord’s but a productive unbeaten eighth-wicket stand between Jamie Smith (51*) and Brydon Carse (33*) worth 82-runs took the hosts to 353/7. In 22 overs bowled in the session, England scored 102 runs and lost three wickets.
Joe Root, batting on 99 overnight, brought up his 37th Test ton off the first ball of the day with a streaky shot to third-man for four. It saw the English batter break into the Top five for the most centuries in the history of the game.
Despite this, India hit their lengths immediately with the second new ball. They got the ball to move away and jag back in, keeping the batters on their toes. Ben Stokes was lucky to survive a run-out after Shubman Gill missed a direct hit but the southpaw was bowled in the next over by Bumrah, who got the ball to nip back in and hit the top of off-stump.
India’s spearhead, Bumrah, followed it up with back-to-back wickets of Root and Chris Woakes, the former chopping one back on to his middle stump while the latter nicked behind to Dhruv Jurel, with DRS coming to India’s rescue. Things could have gotten better for India, in a testing period of play for the English batters, but KL Rahul dropped a regulation catch of Smith at second slip. Carse, too, played and missed and had luck on his side as a couple of deliveries just bounced above the wickets at the start of his innings.
Surprisingly, even with movement on offer, India attempted to change the ball after just 10.4 overs and to their luck it didn’t pass through the gauge. The changed ball however, didn’t please the Indian camp and the built-up frustration allowed the hosts to get some quick runs as they went past the 300-run mark.
48 deliveries later, India changed the ball again which brought a smile to Gill’s face but it didn’t do enough to trouble the English batters.
Smith became the fastest wicketkeeper-batter to 1000 Test runs by balls faced, and along with Carse had the runs flowing quickly and barely offered a chance. Carse began to shift gears towards the end of the session with two boundaries square of the wicket as the hosts continued to regain control and frustrate India. The ‘keeper-batter played a fluent extra-cover drive before bringing up his 50 with a single on the stroke of Lunch.
Another concern for India was the absence of Rishabh Pant. The Indian vice-captain did not take the field on Day 2 after copping a blow to his finger on Day 1 of the Lord’s Test, and it remains to be seen if he’ll come in later in the day to bat for the tourists.
Brief Scores: England 352/7 (Joe Root 104, Jamie Smith 51*; Jasprit Bumrah 4-63, Nitish Kumar Reddy 2-62) vs India
© Cricbuzz
