England overcome Jadeja’s lion-hearted resistance to win Lord’s thriller​

Ravindra Jadeja looks dejected as he walks off as England players celebrate after the match

Ben Stokes led from the front as England defeated India by 22 runs on Day 5 of the third Test at Lord’s to take a 2-1 lead in the five-Test series on Monday. India, chasing 193, resumed their second innings at 58/4 on the final day, still needing 135 more for victory, but crumbled under pressure losing four wickets for just 54 runs in the first session of the day.

England speedster Jofra Archer started the wreckage for India when he clean bowled Rishabh Pant from round the wicket that was angled in on a length from wide of the crease. Pant hit two fours in his nine-run knock. Pant, who hurt his left index finger while keeping on Day 1, was obviously uncomfortable with Archer's lightning-fast pace. He wriggled in agony each time the ball sped onto his bat.

England captain Stokes, who had dismissed Akash Deep on Day 4 to end the day on a high, bowled 9.2 overs on the trot on the final day, also dismissing KL Rahul by trapping him plumb in front of the wicket. Stokes bowled relentlessly from the Nursery End bringing the ball sharply into the right-hander Rahul and was finally rewarded. The umpire turned down the appeal but Stokes went for the review and in the end got the wicket as the replays showed that Rahul was caught deep in the crease and got his bat stuck behind the pad, with the ball hitting his front pad. Rahul departed after a 39-run knock.

Stokes’ 14-over spell spread across two days was the longest by a seamer in this series and the joint third longest by him in his Test career.

Archer struck again in the next over when he dismissed Washington Sundar for a duck by taking a superb return catch. Archer bowled a very full delivery that was angled in towards middle and leg and was clocked in the 140kmph-case. Sundar looked to flick the ball and closed the face of the bat a fraction early and ended up skewing it off the outside half of the blade to the right of Archer, who showed excellent reflexes to stretch his right hand and grabbed it inches above the turf.

With India at 82/7, all hopes rested on Ravindra Jadeja and Nitish Kumar Reddy to take the team to victory and the last recognized batting pair added 30 precious runs for the eighth wicket, before disaster struck at the stroke of Lunch.

England cricketers were quite aggressive in the field clearly inspired by what had transpired at the end of Day 3’s play when India captain Shubman Gill had charged at Zak Crawley and accused him of purposefully wasting time.

Stokes, Brydon Carse, Harry Brook all had words with Reddy. Archer in fact walked in from mid-wicket to say something to Reddy at the batting end but the Indian batter stayed calm. Archer also gave foul-mouthed send-offs to Pant and Sundar after dismissing them.

Chris Woakes, who replaced Stokes in the attack, then dismissed Reddy in his second over of the day. He got the batter caught-behind with a beautiful delivery that was angled in from wide of the crease, to which Reddy stayed back in the crease to defend. The ball straightened and took a faint edge off the shoulder of the bat for Jamie Smith to complete the catch.

India finished the first session at 112/8, needing 81 more runs to win. Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah put up a resolute 35-run stand after Lunch for the ninth wicket to defy England. In the eight over after Lunch, Jadeja survived a close LBW appeal against Woakes and next ball charged down the pitch to smash a six across the line over the mid-wicket boundary to the delight of the Indian fans.

Stokes kept bowling short to Bumrah who resisted for quite a while to go for the pull shot, until he finally gave in and edged another short-pitched delivery high up in the air for substitute Sam Cook to take the catch at mid-on. Bumrah’s five-run vigil lasted for 54 deliveries and he fell with India still needing 46 more to win.

The Jadeja-Bumrah stand almost took India to Tea, not just closer to the target. Before Bumrah’s dismissal, Jadeja was taking a single off the fourth or fifth ball of the over.

India were 163/9, with 30 more runs needed at Tea with hopes riding on Jadeja (56*) and Siraj (2*).

England even brought Shoaib Bashir in action who bowled with a bandaged finger in his left hand. And it was the tall spinner who took the last wicket of Siraj, who was dismissed in the most dramatic way possible. He defended the ball on the backfoot off the middle of the bat but the overspin from Bashir meant that it spun behind after landing onto the pitch and rolled into leg stump to break Indian hearts.

Jadeja finished unbeaten on 61.