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Epic battle, fought super hard… But it's England's by the barest of margins

By Mumbai Indians

The Lord’s battleground gave an enticing encounter between two top cricketing nations, only for the home team to come out victorious and regain their lead in this five-match series.

In what was a fascinating contest of bat and ball, Team 🇮🇳 remained in the fray till the very last… But fate had other ideas. AS CLOSE AS IT GETS. 🤌

Without any ado, let’s get going with how it all played out in London… 

DAY 1 | A ‘shared’ affair

Put into the field first, our bowlers kept it tight through the day, not letting the English openers free their arms.

Our first set of breakthroughs came in the 14th over when Nitish Kumar Reddy’s twin strikes sent both the English openers back to the pavilion. 👏

No. 1 Test bowler JASSI then got the better of No. 1 Test batter HARRY BROOK as England closed the day at 251/4, with Joe Root and Ben Stokes unbeaten at 99 and 39, respectively.

📝 Stumps, Day 1: ENG - 251/4 (83 overs)

DAY 2 | Bumrah’s Day Out at the Home of Cricket

Well, BOOM wasn’t gonna be satisfied bagging just one scalp the previous day… And that was quite visible in his intent!

The first session saw the lead pacer take three wickets, including dismissing Joe Root for the 11th time in Tests. 💥

He went on to take one more in the name of Jofra Archer to surpass legendary Kapil Dev for a very special record ⏬. Mohammed Siraj pocketed Jamie Smith and Brydon Carse’s wickets, both of whom scored a half-century, to bundle them out for 387.

The Indian batters did arguably well to negate the early pressure. Opener KL Rahul held the fort at one end to remain unbeaten at 53.

📝 Stumps, Day 2: IND - 145/3 (83 overs) trail by 242 runs.

DAY 3 | KL-Pant-Jaddu shine on a PAISA VASOOL day at Lord's

KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant navigated their way with great maturity to swing the momentum in our favour, for the time being.

While KL became only the second Indian to register multiple tons at Lord's, Pant braved his way through pain en route to his 74. 💪

SIR THE JADEJA then recorded his third consecutive fifty (72) to narrow the deficit as Nitish Reddy (30) and Washington Sundar (23) chipped in with handy contributions. At the stroke of Stumps, the scores were level at 387. ⚖️

Nonetheless, what summed up an enthralling day was THAT last over… Bumrah bowling. Visitors ‘applauding’ the English openers. Shubman’s aggression… LONG LIVE TEST CRICKET!

📝 Stumps, Day 3: ENG - 2/0 (1 over) lead by two runs.

DAY 4 | Both teams’ bowlers wreak havoc

Whattawow start to the session!

India’s bowling unit restricted England to 98/4 by lunch and continued to make inroads to bundle them out for 192. All-rounder Washington Sundar was the pick among bowlers, claiming 4 wickets while giving away 22 runs. 👌

With a target of 193 runs in sight, English bowlers ensured we didn’t have an easy way through. ALL FOUR RESULTS POSSIBLE ON DAY 5.

📝 Stumps, Day 4: IND - 58/4 (17.4 overs) need 135 runs to win.

DAY 5 | Lower order resistance, but England emerge triumphant…

The third consecutive Test to head into Day 5… But this one happening at Lord’s just hits different!

A valiant fight by the BOOM-Jaddu duo kept the scoreboard ticking, steadily, batting for 22 overs to get us closer to the target. 🫡 Jadeja scored an unbeaten 61 as India got within touching distance of the win.

Alas, it just wasn’t meant to be. Some resilient bowling by England wrapped the Indian batting unit in the final session of the match. Siraj was the last one to get dismissed, as the ball rolled back to his stumps to disrupt the bails off Shoaib Bashir.

The Shubman Gill-led side will now look to bounce back in the fourth Test scheduled to be staged in Manchester, beginning July 23.

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Brief scores: England 387/10 (Joe Root 104, Jasprit Bumrah 5/74) and 192/10 (Joe Root 40, Washington Sundar 4/22) beat India 465/10 (KL Rahul 100, Chris Woakes 3/84) and 170/10 (Ravindra Jadeja 61*, Ben Stokes 3/48) by 22 runs.