England had the better of an attritional day’s cricket as they put their BazBall style of play to one side to make sure there were no slip-ups against India.
And not for the first time they had Joe Root [99 not out] to thank for putting them in a position of real strength at the end of a day that featured a bizarre stoppage after a swarm of ladybirds surrounded the players to bring play to a halt.
Root led the scoring for England on another hot day of cricketGettyFor only the third time in home Tests, Ben Stokes decided to bat first after winning this third consecutive toss.
Having lost on the previous two occasions, it’ll be interesting to see how this Test pans out but England rode their luck as both openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley got through the first hour.
However, after seeing off the returning Jasprit Bumrah and his new ball partner Akash Deep who starred in second innings at Edgbaston, England looked to move on past Mohammed Siraj’s first spell only to stumble against the 80mph swing of Nitish Reddy.
First up Duckett [23] was caught down the leg side and then a run later Reddy took the outside edge of Crawley’s [18] bat with both catches taken by Rishabh Pant.
Ollie Pope edged just short of KL Rahul first ball and looked unsettled for much of the remaining session but England got through to lunch without further mishap.
Run scoring hadn’t been quick. In fact, it was the slowest amount of runs they’d scored against the first 25 overs of an innings in the Brendon McCullum/Stokes era as they went to the break 83/2.
The afternoon was even slower with just 70 runs scored, but it was one that saw both batters survive a wicketless session.
Root looked in charge of his game throughout, rotating strike and pushing the scoring along but on a flat wicket as the ball got older and softer, Pope struggled to get away.
Still at tea, with England 153/2 they would have been the happier of the two sides only for Pope [44] to fall first ball after tea as he pushed unwisely to Ravindra Jadeja .
He was also caught behind by the substitute fielder Dhruv Jurel, who fielded for much of the day behind the stumps in place of Pant who picked up a finger injury early in the afternoon session.
A swarm of ladybirds meant there was a slight pause in play at Lord’sGetty England ended the day 251-4GettyAny hope from the crowd that the introduction of Harry Brook might speed proceedings up a rose after he hit two boundaries from his first five balls but ended when he inside edged onto his stumps from Bumrah for 11.
That brought Stokes to the crease with his batting returns over the last two years under scrutiny. It was the Ashes Test at Lord’s two years ago when he hit his last century and he looked determined to get through to stumps.
A worrying moment came with half an hour to go when he pulled up after completing a single. He seemed to be having a problem with his groin which will concern England with Stokes needed to bowl.
Root tried his hardest to get to three figures before stumps but in the end India slowed their bowling and there were smiles all round when Root was left at the non-strikers end with two balls to go in the day.
Stokes blocked the penultimate delivery out to ironic jeers from the Lord’s crowd with Root overnight one run away from what would be his 8th Test century at the Home of Cricket.
Overseas cricket fans can listen to live commentary of every England Test this summer by tuning into the talkSPORT Cricket YouTube Channel. The Following On Podcast hosted by Jon Norman and Steve Harmison will also be available shortly after the close of play.
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