After losing two early wickets for 44 runs, Joe Root and Ollie Pope steadied England’s innings, taking the total to 153 at tea without any further loss on the opening day of the third Test against India at Lord’s on Thursday. Although India managed to keep England’s run rate in check, Root (54 off 109 balls) and Pope (44 off 103) stood their ground.
Known for their aggressive approach, England had a rather subdued session, going by their standards of scoring at a much faster pace. Root and Pope batted in the classical Test match style, happy to leave deliveries pitched outside the off-stump to prevent any further loss of wickets. They scored just 70 runs from 24 overs in the session. Root scored his fifty with a boundary in the fine-leg region.
Rishabh Pant went off the field after an injury scare as a ball from Bumrah angled down the leg side and hit his left fingertips. Dhruv Jurel took his place behind the stumps.
In the morning session, India all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy struck twice in an eventful over to reduce England to 44 for 2. The score at lunch was 83 for two. As expected, Prasidh Krishna made way for Bumrah as the only change in the Indian Playing 11. Ben Stokes won the toss and opted to bat in a home game only for the second time in the Bazball era. Bumrah, Akash Deep and Mohamed Siraj did ask a few questions, but England openers Ben Duckett (23 off 40) and Zak Crawley (18 off 43) survived the first hour of play to take the score to 39 for no loss in 13 overs.
Due to the unique slope of the ground, Indian bowlers took some time to get used to the up and down nature of the surface while running in. Bumrah bowled from both Pavillion End and Nursery end, while Akash Deep, who took a match haul of 10 at Edgbaston, bowled with the new ball from the Nursery end. Captain Shubman Gill could have brought back Akash Deep after the first hour, but he instead gave the ball to Nitish Reddy from Nursery End and he did not disappoint. The first breakthrough was a chance dismissal with Duckett gloving a short ball on the leg side to the wicketkeeper.
On the next ball, Pope was lucky to survive as Gill could not hold on to a tough catch at gully. Crawley was out on the last ball of the over, which was a beauty that seamed away from length, inducing an outside edge on the way to the keeper.
Scoreboard: England 1st innings: Zak Crawley c Pant b Reddy 18 Ben Duckett c Pant b Reddy 23 Ollie Pope batting 44 Joe Root batting 54 Extras: 14 (b-4, lb-9, nb-1) Total: 153/2 in 49 overs Fall of wickets: 1-43, 2-44 Bowling: Jasprit Bumrah 13-2-21-0, Akash Deep 12-2-55-0, Mohammed Siraj 11-5-25-0, Nitish Kumar Reddy 11-0-35-2, Ravindra Jadeja 1-0-2-0, Washington Sundar 1-0-2-0.
Follow us
