Ishant Sharma, the enigma of Indian cricket, the 6 feet 7 inches tall fast bowler who has promised so much in the past, but delivered little, shocked both his supporters and many detractors by producing a fast bowling performance that will be talked about for years. It was Ishant who won for India their only second win at cricket’s most hallowed ground, the Lord’s, in over 82 years of great trying.
Lord’s has never been lucky for Indians, no matter how important they consider the ground to be. It has seen Indians succumb to defeats several times in the past, some of them even ignominious and heart breaking. But it wasn’t to be so on this occasion. India won second Test match of the Investec series by 95 runs, with 50 minutes left to go for tea, on the last day of the Test match.
The Indian supporters had gathered in strength at Lord’s yesterday, encouraged by the reduced ticket prices and they were more in strength than even the English supporters. Every ball bowled by their heroes was cheered and every English wicket celebrated. It was almost a “Little India” in the heart of London, here at the Lord’s. If the Tebbit’s Test was yesterday applied at Lord’s, then a full three-quarters of the crowd gathered here would fail and fail happily and proudly!
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It was India’s moment, and the Monday of July 21 will always be spoken about by Indian cricket fans, possibly for decades. This was a memorable victory, one that has been won after several decades of humiliating defeats and even dishonor, and one that will always be remembered. After a long time, the people of India could finally say that they were proud of their cricketers, their overpaid, over hyped cricketers, who, like Ishant Sharma, promise so much, but deliver so little. It was high time that they did something remarkable for their hundreds of millions of patient supporters spread all over the world, not just in India. And they did!
As the day began, Indian supporters were already wondering if it would be another of those days when their cricket team would once again endeavor to get themselves defeated when winning seemed easier. Joe Root and Moeen Ali, perhaps England’s most talented young players, batted patiently and batted well, playing orthodox cricket, keeping the scoreboard ticking, without taking any risk. The duo had already shared a 103 run partnership, and considerably strengthened England’s position after a familiar English batting collapse on Day 4. There was just one over left to be handled before lunch, and they just had to negotiate Ishant Sharma who was bowling that over, and they would go to lunch without a wicket lost, which would mean they would enter the next session within a touching distance of the target set by India, with 6 wickets left.
But that was not to be so. Ishant sent in a snorter, a bouncer with the sort of venom that wouldn’t look out of place coming from Mitchell Johnson, and Moeen could only fend it off to see the ball fall harmlessly into the hands of the fielder at short leg. Disaster!
More was to come after lunch, as Matt Prior probably played last shot as an England Test player, trying to pull a bouncer from Ishant straight into the hands of the deep midwicket fielder. Ben Stokes has been having a horrid time with the bat and he succumbed to his fourth successive duck, trying to pull Ishant, but only to see the ball caught easily by Cheteshwar Pujara in the deep.
A frustrated Joe Root, who saw his partners rushing back to the pavilion in a procession, couldn’t do much as he too pulled an Ishant Sharma bouncer, only to be caught at the familiar deep midwicket fielder, this time Stuart Binny, who accepted the catch gleefully. Broad didn’t last a minute longer, gifting Ishant an incredible seventh wicket.
Jimmy Anderson was obviously incensed at everything happening around him, but there was little that he could do, with just one wicket left and over a hundred runs required to be scored. He got out to a run out, fittingly at the hands of his foe, Ranvindra Jadeja, and could only look on completely distraught, as the Indians celebrated all around him.
It was a fabulous victory for India, and a humiliating loss for an England team that is now in a serious crisis. Captain Alistair Cook will have to perform miracles in the next Test match of the Investec series, to be played in the lovely little Rose Bowl cricket ground in Southampton, if he to have any hope of not just saving this series for England, but also his own career.
