FIRST Dom Sibley and then Haseeb Hameed. This Test cricket can be a brutal, unforgiving game.
Sibley failed again, departing with a grim sense of inevitability in exactly the same soft fashion as he did last week at Trent Bridge.
And then Hameed, playing his first Test innings for almost five years, was bowled by Mohammed Siraj’s very next ball.
All those hopes and dreams of a big score after an incredible roller-coaster journey back to international cricket…and he gets out for a bloody golden duck.
England had decided after much agonising to retain Sibley and drop Zak Crawley in order to accommodate Hameed. But now the snail-like Sibley’s career is hanging by a thread.
Hameed should surely have made contact with the full, straight ball from Mohammed Siraj nine times out of ten.
Perhaps nerves were the reason he missed it.At least Hameed knows he will stay in the side for a while yet.
So it was entirely predictable that England found themselves 23-2 in reply to India’s 364 all out when Joe Root joined Rory Burns.
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Earlier, equally predictably, James Anderson had taken five wickets in India’s first innings.
Root to the rescue is England’s theme of 2021 and he did it again, finishing 48 not out.
But he lost Burns 20 minutes before the close for 49 and England reached 119-3, still 245 runs behind.
Root went past Graham Gooch’s total of 8,900 Test runs to occupy second on England’s all-time list with only Alastair Cook ahead of him on 12,472.
Anderson’s seventh five-for at Lord’s – only Ian Botham, with eight, has more – was the 31st of his Test career.
Another remarkable performance from the 39-year-old who passed a fitness test on his sore thigh on the morning of the match.
It is not just the five wickets that is so impressive but Anderson’s miserly economy. His 29 overs went for just 62 runs.
Ollie Robinson put in another decent shift in his third Test match, finishing with 2-73 from 33 overs.
Anderson said: “The game is cruel sometimes, isn’t it?
“Haseeb has worked incredibly hard to get back, done everything right and scored a stack load of runs in the last couple of years.
“He’s looked unbelievable in the nets, too, so I do feel for him. But he’ll get another chance in this game and I’m sure other chances in the series.
“Joe has been amazing throughout his career and this last 12 months in particular with everything we’ve been through with the pandemic. What he’s done has been superhuman.
“Every time he bats, he looks class. He has a calming effect on the dressing-room.
“Every time I play at this ground, it feels special. I love it here, it seems to bring out the best in me.
“Hopefully, it’s not my last time here or my last time on the honours’ board.”
K.L.Rahul’s hopes of turning his century into something huge disappeared when he drove the second ball of the day straight to Sibley at cover.
In the next over, Ajinkya Rahane edged Anderson to slip and England had taken two wickets in the opening seven deliveries.
Rishabh Pant became the first man to be dismissed by anyone other than Anderson or Robinson when he under-edged an attempted slash against Mark Wood.
Moeen Ali persuaded Mohammed Shami to clip to mid-wicket while Ravi Jadeja did his best to marshall the tail.
Anderson collected his fourth and fifth wickets and also held a catch when Jadeja skied a slog to mid-on.
England missed a couple of run out chances and dropped two catches – Jos Buttler and Burns the guilty men – during the closing overs of India’s innings.
DOUBLE DISASTER
But England took the final eight wickets for 97 runs. That’s an impressive comeback from 267-2.
Burns and Sibley managed to negotiate 14 overs before tea but, in the first over after the interval, double disaster struck.
Sibley clipped Siraj straight to mid-wicket – a carbon copy of his dismissal in the first innings of the First Test – and then Hameed was bowled next ball.
Root survived the hat-trick and looked as comfortable as ever. At Trent Bridge, he scored 64 and 109 and England’s next best was 32.
Virat Kohli twice called for reviews against Root but mainly because it was Root.
Neither lbw came up even as ‘umpire’s call’ – the ball was comfortably missing the stumps.
Burns was lbw to Shami and, although he reviewed, umpire Richard Illingworth’s decision was upheld.
- A total of £530,721 was raised on #RedforRuth day for the Ruth Strauss Foundation, which supports research into unusual forms of cancer and helps families prepare for the loss of a parent.
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.sportingexcitement.com/cricket/arsenal-boss-mikel-arteta-calls-lionel-messis-psg-transfer-a-dream-and-gives-his-verdict-on-cristiano-ronaldo-debate
