London: Mohammed Shami scored the most important half-century of his career while Jasprit Bumrah showed tremendous application with the bat as India declared their second innings on 298/8, setting a difficult target of 272 in 60 overs for England.
Shami, unbeaten on 56 off 70 balls, hit a towering six off Moeen Ali to complete his second Test fifty. Bumrah played 64 deliveries for his 34 with both sharing a 89-run partnership for the ninth wicket.
This was also India’s highest ninth wicket stand in a Test match in England.
India batted for nine deliveries in the second session before Kohli decided to declare the innings.
As Shami and Bumrah made their way to the dressing room at lunch, the entire Indian contingent gave them a rousing reception at the Long Room of the Lord’s.
A partnership to remember for ages for @Jaspritbumrah93 & @MdShami11 on the field and a rousing welcome back to the dressing room from #TeamIndia.
What a moment this at Lord’s 👏👏👏#ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/biRa32CDTt
— BCCI (@BCCI) August 16, 2021
Ishant Sharma (16) also made a nice little contribution as the tail-enders between them accumulated 98 runs, something that India have been missing before the start of the series.
At the beginning of the fifth day, Pant charged down the track to smash James Anderson (25-6-49-0) through the covers but Ollie Robinson (16-6-41-2) bowled a beautiful delivery that moved late to induce an outside edge into the keeper’s gloves.
Ishant got a streaky boundary off Anderson but Robinson’s knuckle ball caught him plumb in-front to make it 209 for 8 when Bumrah joined Shami in the middle.
However once Nos 9 and 10 were at the crease, England captain Joe Root decided to spread the field anticipating a lot of aerial shots from the duo but to his horror and his own dressing room’s surprise, both were ready to put their heads down and play proper cricketing shots.
With Mark Wood bowling with deep point and deep mid-wicket, the singles came easily and both of them showed copybook forward defence to Moeen, someone who has troubled the top-order regularly.
They were peppered with a few short balls and Bumrah also got hit on the helmet by Wood but he manfully carried on concentrating even more.
Bumrah’s defence and Shami’s attack had piled on England frustrations which led to some on-field altercation between the two Indians and rival skipper Root and his premier pacer Anderson.
With inputs from PTI
