- Sunday, April 06, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
The iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground was witness to a captivating day of cricket on Friday (13) as England and India fought hard to grab the driver’s seat in the second Test. The home team did well to come back into the game in the early part of the day by restricting the tourists to 364 after they resumed from their overnight score of 276 for 3. KL Rahul, who scored a magnificent century on the first day, could not add much to his overnight score of 127 while his partner Ajinkya Rahane perished for the same score of one.
Wicket-keeper-batsman Rishabh Pant (37 off 58) and Ravindra Jadeja (40 off 120) added 49 runs for the sixth wicket but once the former was picked by Wood, the Indian innings did not last longer and the visitors lost their last three wickets for only two runs. James Anderson, who was the first to strike for England on Thursday after the Indian openers put on 126, finished with 5 for 62, his 31st five-wicket haul in the red-ball format.
Seamers Ollie Robinson (2 for 73) and Mark Wood (2 for 91) were the next best bowlers while Moeen Ali, who made a return to the Test team, got one wicket for 53 runs.
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England started cautiously with Rory Burns (49 off 136) and Dom Sibley (11 off 44) holding fort till tea but the Indian bowlers wrested back the initiative in the third and concluding session of the day by toppling three wickets. Mohammed Siraj picked two back-to-back wickets — Sibley and Haseeb Hameed (nought in first ball) and then Mohammed Shami broke the 85-run partnership between Burns and captain Joe Root (48 not out off 75) that looked threatening for the visiting side. Jonny Bairstow (6 not out off 17) was also at crease and added 11 runs with Root as England finished the day at 119 for 3, trailing India by 245 runs.
The Indian spearheads Ishant Sharma (0 for 32) and Jasprit Bumrah (0 for 32) were yet to claim their first scalp in the game.
Brief scores: India 1st innings 364 (KL Rahul 129, Rohit Sharma 83, James Anderson 5 for 62) vs England 1st innings 119 for 3 (Rory Burns 49, Joe Root 48 not out, Mohammed Siraj 2 for 34) at stumps Day 2
