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This pivotal third Test has been an arm-wrestle but which team ends up slamming their opponents to the table remains a glorious uncertainty. The fifth day will be a short one, that much can be said, as can India being called marginal favourites. But after a dizzying fourth day signed off by Ben Stokes detonating off-stump, England still believed.
Set 193 to win after an inspired collective performance with the ball, India will resume the chase four wickets down and 135 runs away from claiming a 2-1 lead with two to play. And yet if Stokes, his players, and the Lord’s crowd can recapture the cauldron-like atmosphere witnessed before the close – 17.4 overs of chaos that ended with nightwatchman Akash Deep castled – that final ascent will be anything but straightforward.
Perhaps we should have seen this rollercoaster fourth day coming, four years on from the Long Room spat that saw Virat Kohli ask his bowlers to unleash “60 overs of hell” and then deliver a famous win. After the row about time-wasting on the third evening this time, Shubman Gill’s tourists had all the motivation they needed to get stuck in once more.
Dead-level on first innings, but trying to set up the match on an increasingly capricious surface, England’s batting lineup slightly wilted in response to this. Seven men were clean bowled among their 192 all out in 62.1 overs – 12 in the match was a record for them in a home Test – as Jasprit Bumrah and Washington Sundar shared six wickets.
But England let slip the handbrake after the change of innings, with Jofra Archer wiping out Yashasvi Jaiswal in his first over and Brydon Carse nailing two lbws. The form-rich Gill was among these. And while KL Rahul made it to the close despite offering a caught and bowled chance to Chris Woakes, he watched on as Stokes wiped out Deep.
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Ali Martin’s full report to follow
