Cricket, eh? Six years to the day since England won the World Cup at Lord’s by the barest of margins, they were at it again, putting their fans through the wringer before completing a 22-run win over a despairing India.
Ben Stokes’s team now take a 2–1 lead to Manchester, but before that they may like to take refuge in a darkened room. Games like this are good for business, terrible for the blood pressure.
A remarkable final day, on which India’s pursuit of 193 looked dead and buried before Ravindra Jadeja dug in with the tail, ended in freakish fashion, as No 11 Mohammed Siraj defended a delivery from Shoaib Bashir into the ground with soft hands. Too soft, it turned out: with Siraj slow to react, the ball spun behind his legs and touched leg stump with just enough force to dislodge a bail.
Bashir, bowling with a broken little finger in his left hand that will rule him out of the last two Tests, wheeled away in jubilation towards the Grand Stand, dragging his exhausted colleagues with him.
Only Ben Stokes, fielding at mid-on, hung back. Savouring the moment, he allowed himself a belly laugh, then joined his team-mates, a couple of whom had peeled away to commiserate with Siraj. England and India have needled each other throughout this game, and Siraj himself was fined 15% of his fee for sending off Ben Duckett, but mutual respect remained. This was one of the great Tests, between two sides almost impossible to separate.
That England got over the line owed much to the sheer will of their captain, who couldn’t afford another defeat so soon after the disappointment of Edgbaston and seized personal control of the game’s direction whenever it approached a crossroads.
Even before this seismic final day, he had already made his presence felt: a useful 44, the run-out of Rishabh Pant, the wickets of Karun Nair and Nitish Kumar Reddy, a handy 33, then the last-over dismissal of nightwatchman Akash Deep on the fourth evening – sending England to bed with hopes of victory.
Now he embarked on two heroic spells, both of which must have had the ECB medics wincing as they try to manage him through to the end of the Ashes.
The first produced figures of 9.2–1–19–1, including the wicket of KL Rahul, India’s likeliest glue, trapped leg-before on review for 39. The second, rudely ended by a tea interval that had been delayed by half an hour because India were nine down, read 10–3–14–1. Stokes seemed continually ready to turn to Jofra Archer – then bowled another over, just in case.
Earlier in the day, he had urged his team to leave nothing on the park. Later, having led by example, he spoke of ‘taking myself to some pretty dark places’, as if this was the deciding Test of a series and not the third of five. Yet without his energy and charisma, England might easily have lost. The player of the match award was a gimme.
For India, and Jadeja in particular, defeat was as hard to stomach as the first Test at Headingley, where they lost from a position of 430 for three on the second day.
But they were scuppered within the first seven overs of the final morning as England tapped into the momentum established on Sunday night. First Archer got rid of the dangerous Pant for nine, knocking back off stump with a gem that defeated his defensive grope. Engulfed by team-mates, a fired-up Archer shouted: ‘Try charging that one.’
Stokes then made good use of DRS after umpire Saikat rejected his lbw shout against Rahul, before Archer held an athletic return catch to dismiss Washington Sundar. The previous evening, Sundar had promised Indian fans victory. As he walked out to bat, England coach Brendon McCullum indicated from the pavilion balcony that his players should have a word. There was barely time before he headed back for a duck.
With India still needing 111, the ever-resourceful Jadeja embarked on the first of three gutsy partnerships that kept a crowd of over 24,000 – Indians outnumbering English – on tenterhooks.
He put on 30 in 15 overs with Reddy, who was aghast to edge Chris Woakes to Jamie Smith in the last over before lunch. Then he and Jasprit Bumrah, after four successive ducks, ground out 35 in 22. A slow pitch and an ageing ball precluded strokeplay, but limited wicket-taking options too.
Woakes thought he had Jadeja leg-before on 26, but DRS ruled he had been hit millimetres outside off. And not until Stokes persuaded Bumrah to miscue a pull to substitute fielder Sam Cook at mid-on did India’s ninth-wicket pair put a foot wrong.
Even then, with 46 required, Siraj was not for budging. Tea came and went, and Stokes opted for Bashir, his left hand heavily strapped, and Archer, born again these past few days.
From the last ball of what proved the penultimate over, Archer pinned Siraj on the shoulder, necessitating lengthy treatment from the physio. Did the blow affect his equilibrium as he tried to see off Bashir moments later? It was hard to say.
But as if transfixed by an event beyond his control, Siraj watched the ball trickle towards his leg stump, the death rattle replaced by a death plink. For Jadeja, watching helplessly after four and a half hours’ resistance, it was a cruel conclusion. For England, there was only ecstasy.
No matter, for the moment at least, that they have been flawed throughout this series. Thanks to their inspirational leader, they head north with a chance of wrapping it up with a game to spare.
