ANDERSON’S SPELL LEAVES INDIA REELING IN LORD’S TEST
Batsmen come a cropper against quality seam bowling in rainaffected second day
The first day of the second Test was washed out, and rain ate into five hours of the game on Day 2. Still, with fiveand four-man slip cordons, it was rivetting cricket at Lord’s on Friday, showing why visiting teams, batsmen especially, see England as the ultimate challenge.
There was barely seven overs of play in the morning, and players returned briefly before heavy rain forced another long stoppage. The pitch didn’t have much pace, but grass left to bind a dry surface had added potency to England’s pace attack as steady rain on Thursday and fresh spells on Friday freshened up the wicket.
Faced with a massive batting challenge, India caved in and were reeling at 80 for 6. And to compound their woes, skipper Virat Kohli’s indecision led to the run out of Cheteshwar Pujara. Recalled into the side and restored to No 3 in a reshuffled top-order, he was once again doggedly seeing off the new ball when his partner first responded to the run and returned to the crease at non-striker’s end.
In Edgbaston, only Kohli stood up to England’s pace threat, eventually making the narrow defeat palatable. At Lord’s, Kohli saw off James Anderson’s threat once again despite the rain interruptions, only for Chris Woakes to unsettle him.
Woakes, back after recovering from a quadriceps muscle injury, swung the ball into the batsman and got it to seam away with conditions accentuating that movement. Kohli, so vigilant against Anderson, seemed unsure and was twice beaten after his soft hands had kept edges short of the packed slip cordon.
Still, Woakes got him on 23. He survived an edge that eluded Jos Buttler at second slip and ran down the Lord’s slope to third man for four. Next ball swung into middle stump line and seamed away, the edge flying to Buttler straight this time.
Kohli’s sensational batting form has help camouflage some of India’s batting shortcomings. On Friday, it proved beyond the visitors to dig in.
There was some assurance when Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane were together. Rahane looked solid while the pair called well while running to avoid another run out.
Anderson spliced open the Indian batting, bowling Murali Vijay with an absolute classic fifth ball of the morning. Anderson got it to seam away from middle-stump and hit off-stump as the seasoned India opener tried a half-hearted flick. KL Rahul, restored to his favourite opening slot, edged one to the keeper. But once Kohli fell, neither Hardik
Pandya (11) nor Dinesh Karthik had the technique to survive. Woakes got Pandya to nick to second slip and left-arm Sam Curran cleaned up Karthik with swing.
Opener Shikhar Dhawan was dropped while chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav was roped in as second spinner, in place of Umesh Yadav.