England vs India: 2nd Test, Day 2, Review- India hobble through nightmare under gloomy skies

The second Test at Lord’s was expected to be another exciting contest, however, persistent rain has ensured that only 35.2 overs were bowled after two days play. India would’ve been desperate to make a statement against England with a strong show at the ‘Mecca of Cricket’. Nonetheless, the encounter has turned out to be a nightmare for them as they could only muster 107 runs at the cost of all their ten wickets.

Anderson tears apart India’s top order

England won the toss and elected to field first bearing mind the overcast conditions. Virat Kohli, the Indian captain, also wished to bat first, but that wasn’t the case. Murali Vijay and KL Rahul opened the batting. Rahul was promoted after Shikhar Dhawan was dropped following a lacklustre outing at Edgbaston in Birmingham. Moreover, Cheteshwar Pujara found his way back into the eleven.

The start wasn’t an auspicious one for India by any means. James Anderson nipped out Vijay in the very first over with a delivery that shaped away from the right-hander to disturb his timber. KL Rahul couldn’t survive the heat and became Anderson’s second victim. Rahul pushed at the ball only to find the outside-edge into the palms of wicketkeeper Johnny Bairstow.

Woakes removes Kohli

Following Rahul’s dismissal, rain interrupted play for quite a while after which the match recommenced. Kohli and Pujara resumed their innings. Unfortunately, Pujara lost his wicket owing to a horrendous mix up with his skipper and moments after the dismissal, the rain returned. However, play got underway from 9:40 pm IST. The sun was out and Kohli along with Ajinkya Rahane looked determined to stay put in their wickets.

The duo stitched together a stand of 35 runs and England, slowly but steadily, started to panic. Chris Woakes, who made a comeback after his quad and knee injury, delivered the body blow when he pinned Kohli. The Delhi-born batter closed the face of the willow to an away-going ball and the ball took the leading edge into the hands of Jos Buttler in the slip cordon.

More wickets for England  

Hardik Pandya flattered to deceive yet again after blazing away to a couple of boundaries early in his innings. He became Woakes’ second victim when he perilously flirted outside the off-stump only to find the outside edge. Dinesh Karthik’s poor run of form continued as Sam Curran cleaned him up for the second time in the series. The wicketkeeper-batsman could only play three balls.

Rahane and Ravichandran Ashwin put on another partnership of 21 runs, but yet again an English pacer, this time Anderson put his hands up and picked up Rahane, who scored 18 laborious runs in 44 balls. Anderson churned out his fourth wicket in the form of Kuldeep Yadav. In the very next over, Ashwin followed suit as Stuart Broad added to his wickets column.

Mohammed Shami was the next man in and the visitors found themselves in the danger of getting bowled out under 100 runs. India’s number eleven flayed his bat around to score 10 runs, but Ishant got out in the 36th over to give Anderson a five-wicket-haul and bring the curtains down on an abysmal day for India. Meanwhile, the Three Lions, well and truly, have got themselves on to the driver’s seat.

Brief Scores

India: 107 all out in 35.2 overs; (Ravichandran Ashwin 29, Virat Kohli 23; James Anderson 5/20, Chris Woakes 2/19)

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