After the second day, India still trails by 242 runs with seven wickets in hand.
It was another slow day at the Lord’s Test. Even with an extra half hour added, only 75 overs were possible in the whole day. But the contest between bat and ball remained intense. England ended the day slightly ahead.
Thanks to Joe Root’s century and fifties from Jamie Smith and Brydon Carse, England’s total neared 400 runs. Jasprit Bumrah tasted five wickets again after a match’s gap. In his very first over, Jofra Archer marked his Test return after nearly four and a half years with a wicket. Lokesh Rahul kept India fighting with his third consecutive Test fifty.
In the third Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, England were all out for 387 on a slow Lord’s pitch by the end of day two. India finished the day on 145 for 3, still trailing by 242 runs.
Archer, playing his first Test since February 2021, dismissed Yashasvi Jaiswal in his second over with his third ball, caught at slip by the left-handed opener.
After that early blow, Rahul and Karun Nair built resistance with a second-wicket partnership. However, Nair couldn’t convert his return after eight years into a big innings, falling for 40 off 62 balls.
Joe Root set a new record for most catches by a non-wicketkeeper in Tests, taking a brilliant one-handed catch at slip off Ben Stokes to dismiss Karun Nair. With this, Root surpassed Rahul Dravid’s tally of 210 catches and now has 211.
Shubman Gill, who scored 430 runs in the previous Test, was dismissed cheaply for 16 by Chris Woakes, caught behind by keeper Smith.
Gill also broke the record for most runs by an Indian captain in a single England series, surpassing Virat Kohli’s 593 runs in 2018 with 601 runs in the current series.
Rahul played responsibly to reach fifty off 97 balls and ended the day in an unbroken 38-run partnership with Rishabh Pant, who was injured in the field the previous day.
England started day two at 251 for 4 wickets. Root, unbeaten on 99 overnight, reached his much-awaited century with a boundary off the first ball of the day. This was his 37th Test hundred and his third consecutive century at Lord’s — making him the third batsman ever to achieve this feat. He now ranks fifth on the list of highest Test century-makers and is England’s most successful Test batsman.
England then lost three wickets quickly. Bumrah bowled Ben Stokes in the third over of the day, breaking an 88-run partnership that had lasted 184 balls. Bumrah then removed Root and Woakes in back-to-back deliveries in his next over.
Root finished with 104 runs off 199 balls, including 10 fours.
Smith and Carse steadied the innings with an 84-run partnership for the eighth wicket.
Smith also reached a milestone by scoring his 1,000th Test run in just 21 innings — equalling the record for fastest wicketkeeper to 1,000 runs, previously held jointly by South Africa’s Quinton de Kock.
Smith scored 51 runs off 56 balls with 6 fours, marking his third consecutive half-century after innings of unbeaten 184 and 88 in the previous Test.
Bumrah completed five wickets by dismissing Archer, surpassing Kapil Dev’s record of most five-wicket hauls (13) by an Indian pacer overseas. The 31-year-old pacer now holds this record.
Carse scored his maiden fifty, hitting 56 runs off 83 balls with 6 fours and a six, before being the last man out.
Brief Scores
England 1st innings: (Day 1: 251/4) 112.3 overs, 387 all out
(Root 104, Stokes 44, Smith 51, Woakes 0, Carse 56, Archer 4, Nawaz 1*;
Bumrah 27-5-74-5, Akash 23-3-92-0, Siraj 23.3-6-85-2, Nitish 17-0-62-2, Jadeja 12-1-29-1, Washington 10-1-21-0)
India 1st innings: 43 overs, 145/3
(Jaiswal 13, Rahul 53*, Karun 40, Gill 16, Pant 19*;
Woakes 13-1-56-1, Archer 10-3-22-1, Carse 8-1-27-0, Stokes 6-2-16-1, Bashir 6-1-22-0)
