The Joy of Test Cricket - Day Four at Lord's

I’ve been watching test cricket at Lord’s for the best part of thirty years. In that time there have been plenty of ‘I was there’ moments, from Sunil Gavaskar’s hundred in the Bicentenary Test to Trott and Broad’s partnership against Pakistan last year via Graham Gooch’s triple century. I’ve even seen Mark Butcher and Anthony McGrath share seven wickets in a test innings. Today’s play, though, was up there with the best that I’ve seen. There was some superb bowling, a rousing fight back and the opportunity to watch two of the greatest batsmen of the last ten years dogging it out against some superb seam bowling. It was marvellous.

Before play, the talk had been of when England would declare and what sort of target they would leave. By the end of the England innings this was still a matter for speculation, but the route that they had taken was somewhat circuitous and made for some enthralling cricket.

England started the morning brightly, Strauss looking in good touch as he clipped a couple of boundaries to settle the nerves. Cook finally got off the mark and looked unperturbed by his long scoreless spell before Kumar produced a beauty to have him caught behind, bringing in Jonathan Trott against an attack that was functioning markedly better than it had in the first innings. Ishant’s first spell was a marked step up from his travails on the first couple of days, bowling at a decent pace to a much tighter off stump line and causing some problems without managing to make the breakthrough.

England moved fairly serenely to 54-1 as Lord’s dozed gently in the sunshine. Harbhajan looked ineffective from the Nursery End, although the slope didn’t help his spin, and Kumar, the wicked delivery to Cook aside, looked less effective than he had in the first innings. All this was about to change, however.

At the end of Kumar’s spell Dhoni, juggling his rather thin bowling resources, switched Harbhajan to the more helpful Pavilion End and brought Ishant, after only a short rest, back at the Nursery End, a move that was to reap considerable rewards. First, Harbhajan trapeed Strauss leg before, a decision that the England captain looked unhappy with but which was later vindicated by Hawkeye. Then Ishant produced a spell that will last long in the memories of those who saw it. Pietersen was dismissed by a beauty, an effort ball that bounced appreciably more than its predecessors and took the glove as Pietersen took evasive action. Bell then followed, edging behind as Ishant made Geoffrey Boycott purr with his use of the corridor of uncertainty. When Trott was bowled playing uncharacteristically loosely at a ball that jagged back improbably up the hill England were 62-5 and India were scenting a chance of victory.

England collapses have been a feature of the last three Lord’s tests. Against Pakistan last year they were 102-7 before the extraordinary Trott and Broad partnership and against Sri Lanka they were 22-3 before recovering to make well over 400, so they did not panic. Morgan and Prior saw them through to lunch, by which time Ishant had 3-15 from thirteen overs.

After lunch, Dhoni gave Ishant a rest and brought on Kumar from the Nursery End, a move which was understandable given Ishant’s exertions in the morning but which gave the England batsmen some respite. Morgan and Prior started to rebuild, but the return of Ishant saw Morgan spoon the ball to midwicket where Gambhir took a fine catch low to the ground.  At 107-6 India were right back in the game.

Stuart Broad’s first scoring shot was an extremely tight single to mid-on, and this set the tone for what was to come. Prior and Broad ran like demons, exploiting unathletic Indian fielding, that verged on the shambolic. As the partnership built, both started to open out, Prior indulging in some characteristic offside shoots and Broad thumping the ball down the ground off the front foot and pulling with relish.

Both had moments of good fortune, Prior twice lobbing the ball into open spaces and Broad edging a huge drive between Dhoni and Dravid, neither of whom moved. Then they really put their foot down, Prior moving into the nineties with a sweetly timed six into the Mound Stand and Broad playing a shot a ball. India’s plight was rather summed up when Prior was on 99: Dhoni brought the field up to deny Broad a single, whereupon he took ten from the first three balls of the over and then took a single anyway, allowing Prior to complete his hundred. The declaration followed immediately, a state of affairs that would have been impossible to imagine at lunch.

Gambhir had taken a shuddering blow to the elbow fielding at short leg, so Dravid opened with Mukund. Mukund got off to a flying start, taking boundaries in the first two overs, but England soon got the radar right and the Indian batsmen were given a torrid time. Mukund departed, playing on to Broad for the second time in the match, but Dravid and Laxman showed their class, first by surviving as the ball whistled past the edges of their bats and then starting to thrive as the day drew to a close. An Indian win tomorrow looks close to impossible, but if these two can bat for a long time in the morning then a draw could yet be theirs.