A day that began as well as Joe Root could have hoped and ended far worse than he feared

PAUL EDWARDS AT LORD'S: On this glorious evening, Lord's belonged to Jasprit Bumrah and to his colleagues and even now they are sitting on the balcony, savouring and remembering. They deserve every precious moment

Lord's (fifth day of five): India 364 & 298-8, England 391 & 120 - India win by 151 runs

Scorecard

By the end of this great Test Match Virat Kohli could have demanded that the Grace Gates be sent back to Delhi at MCC’s expense and no one in the Long Room would have demurred. When Mohammed Siraj knocked back James Anderson’s off stump at just gone half-past six on a suddenly hazy evening it completed a victory that was also a justification for Kohli’s attacking strategy and for his ability to communicate his indomitable spirit to his immensely talented players.

This was only India’s third win in 19 matches at Lord’s but it is also their most significant for it perhaps confirms the emergence of a team whose ability to win away from home is not the least of their qualities. And yet…and yet…had those famous gates at the entrance to Lord’s been removed they could not have been more unhinged than was England’s strategy during the hour of the morning session that prepared the ground for one of India’s finest triumphs.

But suddenly, even as one recalls the position of strength in which Joe Root’s side entered this final morning, one mind also goes back to 1963 and another Lord’s Test. In that distant monochrome June a West Indies side led with millpond composure by Frank Worrell and urged on by many Londoners who had arrived in the UK from the Caribbean relatively recently drew a match after a final day that also belongs among the game’s most noble memories.

Some 58 years later this Indian team is skippered by a considerably more volatile figure than Worrell and it was soon clear that the visitors did not want for vociferous support on this overcast Monday morning in St John’s Wood. This, perhaps, was their 1963.

Very many of those supporters, most of whom paid a paltry twenty quid for memories that will be pin-sharp for the rest of their days, are still here, listening to Kohli explain his team’s approach and salute its success.

Now that battle is done, the Indian captain is too civilised a fellow to gloat over England’s failure to exploit their opportunity to win a Test in which they were eventually bowled out for 151 in 51.5 overs on a pitch where only new-ball bowlers should have gained much joy. Tomorrow’s press will not be so chivalrous or so squeamish and nor should we. Magnificent as India’s cricket was this last day, much of England’s was execrable.

^{Mohammed Siraj bowled James Anderson to win the Test for India}

The morning session began as well as Root could have hoped and ended far worse than he feared. Ollie Robinson’s ninth ball of the day pitched on a perfect length and moved away a shade. Rishabh Pant felt for it and edged a catch to Jos Buttler. It seemed an uncharacteristic method of dismissal for Pant until one remembered that his technique is frequently textbook and his calibration of risk carefully considered. He is as likely to be dismissed in this fashion as he is flailing into the outfield.

Ironically that first wicket marked the start of England’s problems for it began nearly an hour or so of deeply undistinguished cricket as the home side’s bowlers, principally Mark Wood, attempted to pay Jasprit Bumrah back in kind for the volley of short and nasty stuff he had directed at James Anderson’s body late on Saturday evening. Yet England were still well placed when Ishant Sharma shuffled across his crease and was trapped in front for 16 by Robinson: India’s lead was only 182 and they had two wickets to fall.

Bumrah’s arrival changed everything. Wood pitched it short at India’s No.10 when a 90mph yorker would surely have been a far more effective way of removing the batsman. Sadly, the need to take wickets had taken second place to a desire to achieve Justice for Jimmy.

India out-think England to secure famous victory as Joe Root gets in a muddle

This ill-conceived plan – one of Baldrick’s, perhaps – was augmented by various comments, none of them cordial and a few probably unprintable, from the England players. Anderson and Buttler appeared especially voluble – no surprise there – and the Indian batsmen replied to the extent that umpires Gough and Illingworth had to step in and calm things down.

The Indian tailenders were energised and emboldened by the stramash. Runs came a decent lick and Root began to set fields to prevent boundaries rather than take the wickets of batsmen whose deficiencies had been identified as one of their team’s weaknesses.

It was deeply dense cricket and by the time England’s bowlers recovered even a fragment of control their team’s chance of victory had disappeared. Shami reached his fifty with a four through mid-on and a six over midwicket from successive Moeen Ali deliveries and so many of his team mates wished to applaud the fact that they overflowed onto the middle balcony of the pavilion. Damn right, too.

^{Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami were unlikely stars with the bat}

By the time Kohli declared, 15 balls into the afternoon session, both Shami and Bumrah had registered career-best Test scores and their partnership had yielded 89 runs in exactly 20 overs. However, the significance of their stand extended beyond the statistical. For one thing it had all but removed any chance of an England victory; for another it had exemplified Kohli’s “never a backward step” approach to his leadership of India’s team.

The captain had stood on the visiting balcony during crucial points in the morning’s play shouting his support as loudly as the India’s supporters in the Grand Stand. And finally, the partnership transformed the psychological balance of the game in a fashion that only became clear when England’s doomed openers came out to begin the final innings of this great match. For the dull record, the home side needed 272 in 60 overs. It might as well have been a thousand – runs or overs.

Rory Burns survived three balls before he chipped a catch to Mohammed Siraj running in from wide mid-off. Next over, Dominic Sibley, in what may be his last Test innings for a while, was well beaten by a fine ball that seamed away and took an edge to Pant.

Haseeb Hameed had come to the wicket in the first over on a king pair, a grim distinction he nearly collected when he played and missed at his first ball from Bumrah. Gradually, though, he and Root restored some species of order to England’s innings, even though the Nottinghamshire batsman was dropped by Rohit Sharma at second slip off Shami.

Eventually, though, after 64 minutes’ stout resistance, Hameed’s luck disappeared when he was beaten on the back foot by Sharma. Michael Gough raised the finger and the batsman’s review decided it was simply the official’s call. The same umpire reprieved Jonny Bairstow when he was also hit on the back leg by the delivery before tea and India’s review suggested the ball was hitting the stumps.

However, the pleasure of taking both those wickets could not equal the joy of the tourists in the first over after tea when Joe Root edged Bumrah to the safe hands of Kohli at first slip. As any fule kno, that wicket was crucial and Kohli celebrated his snare in characteristically self-effacing fashion. Indeed, he milked every drop of applause that was going.

^{Tempers frayed as the day wore on}

A gripping hour then passed before Moeen Ali edged Siraj to Kohli but only a couple of minutes until Sam Curran snicked the same bowler to Pant, thus becoming only the fourth batsman in England’s Test history to collect a king pair. 90 for 7; Root’s team had been favourites to win this match just six hours previously.

Robinson, however, is clearly made of the tough stuff Test cricket has always required and he batted another hour with Buttler before the last three English wickets fell in seven balls amid some appropriately manic celebrations. Robinson was leg before, albeit on review, to Bumrah before Siraj had Buttler caught behind for a 148-minute 25 and bowled Anderson third ball.

That spared us a third bout of Anderson v Bumrah – The Bumper War but few people cared, not least the Indian fast bowler. On this glorious evening Lord’s belongs to him and to his colleagues and even now they are sitting on the balcony, savouring and remembering. They deserve every precious moment.