Ishant’s best gives India win at Lord’s after 28 years

London, July 21 :

Ishant Sharma’s career best seven for 74 bounced out England to give India a historic 95-run victory, their first in 28 years at Lord’s, in the second cricket Test here Monday.

Set a target of 319, England were bowled out for 223 runs in their second innings, a little over an hour before tea on the final day as India took a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

Curiously, England could not get as many as they scored in the first innings (319) to win the match. India riding on a fine century by Ajinkya Rahane (103) had scored 295 in the first innings and 342 in the second innings.

The 25-year-old Ishant, who went wicketless in the first innings, used the short-ball well to his advantage as Joe Root (66), Moeen Ali (39), Matt Prior (12), Ben Stokes and Stuart Broad (8) all fell to short-pitched deliveries on the final day. Ishant was adjudged the Man of the Match.

Resuming at 105 for four on the fifth morning, England had a daunting challenge at hand to save the Test match. Root and Moeen frustrated the Indian bowlers in the first session but at the stroke of lunch Ishant struck to remove Moeen and tilt the scales in India’s favour. Moeen was completely taken aback by a short pitched delivery that rose sharply and he took his eyes off and gloved it to Cheteshwar Pujara at short-leg.

The 101-run stand for the fifth wicket between Root and Moeen helped England to recover from a precarious 72 for four. But with Moeen’s dismissal, India sensed victory and piled the pressure on the hosts.

In the post-lunch session, Ishant peppered the England bowlers with short-pitched deliveries and it did the trick for India. Prior found Murali Vijay at deep mid-wicket while attempting a pull in 80th over.

Stokes continued his poor run as he fell for his fourth consecutive duck while attempting a pull and two balls later Root found Stuart Binny at deep square leg in a similar fashion. It was just a co-incidence that Binny’s father Roger, now a national selector, also featured in the last win at Lord’s in 1986 under the captaincy of Kapil Dev.

With score at 201/8, the writing was on the wall for England and this time India were not ready to let loose the tailenders. Ishant again used the short-ball cleverly — and this time it was Broad, who attempting to trickle it down the leg-side, gloved to Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

For Ravindra Jadeja it was like sweet revenge as he ran out James Anderson (2) to finish off a memorable win for India.

(IANS)