PUBLISHED : 19 Jul 2025 at 03:30
India and England produced another great advertisement for Test cricket with a tense encounter at Lord’s in the third of the five-match series. A packed crowd at the home of cricket witnessed a dramatic final day on Monday in which England held on to win by just 22 runs after an admirable Indian fightback led by Ravindra Jadeja.
England were inspired by captain Ben Stokes whose all-round performance including a lengthy spell of accurate bowling earned him Player of the Match.
The result leaves the series delicately poised at 2-1 in England’s favour. But there is so little to choose between the teams, it is impossible to predict the outcome of the fourth Test which begins at Old Trafford on Wednesday.
England will be without spinner Shoaib Bashir who has been ruled out of the rest of the series with a broken finger. Despite his injury Bashir bravely came on to bowl near the end of the Lord’s match and was overjoyed at taking the precious final wicket. Hampshire spinner Liam Dawson has been called up as a replacement.
The Lord’s match provided plenty of drama despite the slow scoring rate and as the game developed things became quite feisty at times as tension mounted.
Spectators also witnessed the rare situation of the teams being tied on 387 after the first innings with England’s Joe Root and India’s KL Rahul both scoring centuries. England were pegged back by some fine fast bowling from Jasprit Bumrah who took 5-74.
Runs were harder to get in the second innings with Root again top scoring for England with 40 as the hosts slumped to 192 all out following a fine spell from Washington Sundar with 4-22.
That left India 193 to win but with Stokes and Jofra Archer picking up three wickets apiece it proved too much for the visitors despite a brave 61 not out from Jadeja supported by the tail.
There was huge interest in the performance of Archer after a four-year absence from Test cricket owing to a long-term injury. Considering his lengthy layoff, Archer performed well, introducing some much-needed pace into the England attack. Taking five wickets in the match including a brilliant caught and bowled to dismiss Sundar, he did enough to justify his selection.
On the fifth and final day Stokes had to remind Archer that July 14 marked a special day In England’s cricket history.
It was the same day six years ago in the Cricket World Cup Final that Archer bowled the winning “super over” against New Zealand after the match had been tied.
England’s team could be forgiven for casting an eye on events in the Caribbean where their forthcoming Ashes foes Australia demolished the West Indies for just 27 runs with Mitchell Stark taking an amazing 6 for 9. It is the second lowest score in Test history, with New Zealand holding the dubious honour of being bowled out by England for 26 at Auckland back in 1955.
The rout saw the Aussies, who have experienced batting problems themselves on the Caribbean wickets, comfortably sweep the series 3-0. It is rather sad to see the once feared West Indies struggling in this way, especially their brittle batting.
West Indies captain Roston Chase glumly summed up the series, “the bowlers kept us in the contest but the batting let us down time after time.”