With Anderson vs Jadeja row hogging limelight before the test, the first day at Lord’s displayed a perfect test day. At first it was Anderson doing the talking only through bowling, no lip movement taking India down the hill, and then there was Rahane, in the company of who else but Bhuvneswar Kumar, scoring the prized Lord’s century giving India a slight edge. India has 1 wicket remaining, 10 runs to go for 300 runs, while Anderson having already created many records today would need that wicket to complete another 5-wicket haul at Lord’s.
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Toss
On a green top pitch, to everyone’s surprise Captain Cook elected to field first. Probably the aim now is not to bat second and inflict an innings defeat upon India, who already have Lord’s as their worst venue across the globe with only 1 win but 11 losses in last 15 tests.
Squads
Both the teams appeared happy with the performance for a draw at first test, and played the same XI. Gambhir has to wait longer for his return, may be an innings more if Dhawan fails again, while Ashwin could not replace Jadeja, may be just because of the wrong hype around him due to the case against Anderson. Thankfully, Binny was not replaced.
Cook on the other hand did not add any specialist spinner to the side. The way Indians faltered in the first innings, probably he could have removed one more bowler and got the same result.
Statistics
- With first wicket of Dhawan, Anderson grabbed his 230th test wicket at home, breaking Truman’s record of maximum wicket at home.
With Kohli’s wicket, Anderson broke Ian Botham’s record to become highest wicket taker at Lord’s.
With Dhoni’s wicket Broad completed 250 test wickets.
11th century by an Indian at Lord’s.
90-run partnership for 8th wicket between Rahane and B Kumar.
2nd Test century by Rahane in 7 tests. First century was at New Zealand.
Scores: Lunch 73/2
Tea: 140/6
Day 1: 290/9
Indian Batting
Indian batting can be divided between strugglers, clueless, and confident batsmen as all 10 batted. Dhawan (7), Dhoni (1), Jadeja (3) were clueless. Murali Vijay (24), Pujara (28), Kohli (25) and Binny (9) struggled. Rahane (103), Bhuvneswar (36), Shami (14*), and Ishant (12*) appeared the confident lot.
Reeling at 145/7: First wicket fell at 11 runs (Dhawan), then 2nd at 48 runs (Vijay), 3rd at 86 runs (Kohli), 4th (Pujara) and then complete collapse as they lost Dhoni, Jadeja and Binny in next 16 overs adding only 32 runs.
290/9 Stumps: Rahane in the company of B Kumar (90 runs in 24 overs) for 8th wicket and then 40 runs in 5 overs with Shami for 9th wicket took India to a decent score. Shami and Ishant added another 15 runs in 3.2 overs facing the new ball attack of Anderson and Broad.
English Bowling and Fielding
Ballance tilted the match in the favor of hosts, as he first took a low catch of Dhawan and then a high catch of Murali Vijay, both for Anderson. Prior had a bad day at office. But catches of Kohli of Anderson and Dhoni of Broad would give him some consolation. Jadeja did not face Anderson in his 11-ball stay when Ali sent him back.
Anderson was the hero of their day with 4/55 in 22 overs. Broad had 2/79 in 22 overs. Plunkett (1/51), Stokes (1/40) and Ali (1/38) were also successful.
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