India vs England: England with a slight edge before Day 5

In what was a see-saw fourth day, Mark Wood and Moeen Ali struck late in the final session to leave the match tantalisingly poised heading into the final day of the second Test. While the first session belonged to England, more specifically to Wood’s express pace, India’s Test specialists finally made their presence felt in the second session as they put up a dogged resistance.

Here are the major talking points from Day 4: 

Wood gets past in-form India openers

“It’s still going to be a pretty good batting wicket today, and going into tomorrow,” said Nick Knight in his pitch report ahead of Day 4’s play. The cricketer-turned-commentator added that the overcast conditions at the start might assist the English seamers in the first session.

It eventually turned out to be a pretty accurate assessment, albeit there was some inconsistent bounce over the course of the day.

All eyes were on veteran English seamer James Anderson, who had claimed a five-for in the first essay. But for England, it was Wood’s express pace (3/40 in 14 overs) that did the bulk of the damage.

The ball wasn’t doing much in the air. And sensing this, Root wisely introduced Wood as early as in the sixth over, making it the earliest the paceman has bowled in a Test innings since his debut in 2015

And the move paid rich dividends as he steamed in, hit the deck hard and went past the in-form opening pair of KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma.

In the second delivery of the 10th over, he bowled a back of length delivery measuring 150ks/93mph. It angled in and straightened just a bit to take the outside edge of Rahul’s bat. Given how technically sound he (India’s leading run-scorer) appeared so far on the tour, this was a huge prize for England.

A couple of overs later, Rohit, who is highly instinctive on the pull and hook shot, was dismissed in a similar fashion (while hooking) for the second time on this tour as he found Buttler at deep square leg.

Just prior to his dismissal, he had dispatched one that was around the off stump into the stands after middling the pull. The wicket-taking delivery, however, was much straighter and had extra bounce. There were three fielders on the on side, along with a deep square leg, once again indicating this was a well planned and executed ploy by Root and Co.

The ‘Hitman’ had earlier said that he will back his instincts if he sees the ball (short stuff) in his area. Considering the match situation, the shot was absolutely needless and he might have to take a hard look at his stance since this is the third time he’s been dismissed in a similar fashion since 2020 (once being during the Australia tour).

Wood once again breathed life into a stale pitch with his extra pace in the third session, getting one to kick up from length, take the well-set Cheteshwar Pujara’s outside edge and carry to Root at second slip.

That familiar poke outside off from Virat Kohli

Skipper Kohli looked supremely confident early on, with a gorgeous cover drive fetching him his first boundary. He was in control for the most part, but a familiar technical flaw came back to haunt him as he left India reeling at 55/3.

It’s often said that in England, one must play closer to the body and as late as possible. And Kohli did the exact opposite as he poked at a Sam Curran delivery way outside the off stump, which should have been ideally left. The set up was brilliant as Curran had ended his previous over to Kohli with a nip-backer and the very next over, managed to tempt Kohli with the angle that went across the batsman.

Under-fire Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane finally step up

Rohit and Rahul had so far made up for the Indian middle order’s failure in the series. That cushion wasn’t available on Day 4. With the openers and Kohli back in the pavilion (cheaply at that), it was indeed a test of character for the under-fire Pujara (45 off 206) as well as Rahane (61 off 146) and the duo finally stepped up when it mattered.

Not only were they battling the precarious match position they found themselves in, but also their woeful form heading into the second innings. Heading into the match, Pujara had only 552 runs in 13 Tests at an average of 25.09 (since the start of 2020). Rahane, on the other hand, had merely 541 runs in 13 Test matches at 25.76.

After a spirited show by England in the first session, the second session was about the grit (shown by the duo) which cut short the hosts’ advantage.

Pujara did what he does best – hang in there, soak the pressure and tire the bowlers out, although he was even slower by his standards. His first run came off the 35^th delivery he faced, drawing a loud cheer from the crowd. As he consumed 100 deliveries, his score read 12.

At this juncture, this is Cheteshwar Pujara’s slowest Test knock – 12* in 101 balls – S/r 11.88.
His slowest while facing at least 100 balls is the 24 in 103 balls (S/r 23.30) at Perth in Dec 2018#ENGvsIND #EngvInd#IndvsEng #INDvENG

— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) August 15, 2021

Rahane, as expected, was the much quicker of the two and looked really assured at the crease, both in his defence (for the major part) and boundary shots which included flicks, cuts, pulls and drives.

While India could only amass 49 runs (from 28 overs) in the second session, they didn’t lose any wicket either. Time was of great significance and surviving the entire day was crucial for the visiting side. And Rahane and Pujara had successfully steadied the ship for India.

As was seen on Day 3, the Day 4 Lord’s pitch didn’t have much on offer for the bowlers once the ball got softer. The duo finally upped their scoring rate in the final session of the day. Soon after completing a 100-run stand for the fourth wicket, however, Pujara’s resistance came to an end courtesy Wood.

England with a slight edge before Day 5

With the pitch encouraging Moeen Ali, who extracted turn and bounce, England once again gained an upper hand in the final session of the day. After Pujara’s departure, the off-spinner struck twice in eight balls, first finding the edge of Rahane’s bat and then claiming a classic off-spinner’s dismissal as he got one to spin ever so slightly to take Ravindra Jadeja’s off stump.

Play was called off earlier than expected due to bad light. However, knowing that the new ball is due and that English seamers will be fresh tomorrow, they would aim to wrap up India’s lower order in a jiffy. With a 154-run lead, Rishabh Pant and Ishant will hold guard for the visitors on Day 5.

He has often been hailed as a game-changing player, but is getting India into a commanding position too herculean a demand from the southpaw? Remember, he’ll be batting with the tail. Another fascinating day of Test cricket awaits us on Day 5.