As India looked back on the heartbreaking 22-run defeat against England on the fifth day of the Lord’s Test on Monday, the visitors’ captain Shubman Gill was asked if his heated exchange with England opener Zak Crawley was the turning point of the match.
India lost the nail-biting thriller at the Home of Cricket by 22 runs as England overcame Ravindra Jadeja’s lion-hearted effort to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series.
Chasing 193, India were bowled out for 170 with Jadeja remaining unbeaten on 61.
The biggest talking point of the match was Gill and the Indian players charging at Crawley accusing him of purposefully wasting time towards the end of play on Day 3.
At the post-match press conference, Gill was asked if that incident was the turning point of the match and if England team took that too personally.
The Indian skipper replied, “Five minutes cannot define five days of hard work. If I have to look at the moments, then it (the Crawley incident) won’t come even in my top five moments. The most important moment for us was Rishabh Pant’s run out. At one point we were feeling that we can take a 50 or 100-run lead and we also knew that batting on this track on Day 5 won’t be very easy, so a first innings lead would have been handy and the other team would have been on the backfoot. At the end of the third day, both teams were level and it was obvious that the chasing team would be under pressure and I think our one hour’s play yesterday and today, our top order failed to perform as per expectations and that happens sometimes, we could have handled the pressure better but we couldn’t do it.”
The final day began with a flurry as England struck early, snatching three quick wickets and seemingly dismantling India’s resistance before the crowd had even settled. But just like in the first innings, Ravindra Jadeja refused to back down.
With the ball losing its sting and support from a spirited lower-order, Jadeja mounted a gritty fightback. From a precarious 112/8, the last two wickets added 58 valuable runs, forcing England to work hard for every inch. In the end, though, the target proved too steep for Bumrah and Siraj, as England’s relentless pressure saw them clinch a hard-fought win.
