London, July 11 (IANS) Jamie Smith hit his second fifty of the ongoing Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series to steer England’s recovery in the third Test at Lord’s on Friday, especially after Jasprit Bumrah wreaked havoc with a fiery three-wicket spell.
At lunch, England reached 353/7 in 105 overs, with Smith and Brydon Carse unbeaten on 51 and 33 respectively, with their unbroken eighth wicket stand worth 82 runs. With the pitch being quicker, Bumrah was able to move the new ball both ways to dismiss England’s overnight batters – Joe Root and Ben Stokes – within the first 30 minutes of the first session, before taking out Chris Woakes.
But Smith, dropped on five by KL Rahul, made the most of his luck to bring up his sixth Test fifty and be rock solid alongside Carse to lead England’s lower-order fightback. For India, the timing of balls being replaced twice coincided with them going off the boil after Bumrah provided them with a platform to dismiss them for a low total.
The day began with Root carving Bumrah behind square for four to get his 37th Test ton off the first ball of the morning session and go past Rahul Dravid and Steve Smith on the overall centurions list. But Bumrah came back to castle Stokes with an absolute corker – getting one to angle in from around the wicket and hit top of off-stump with so much ferocity that it was knocked out of the ground.
Bumrah then got Root out for the 11th time in Tests with a full delivery which nipped in a touch and Root chopped onto his stumps to fall for 104. One brought two for Bumrah as he caught outside edge on a tentative poke by Chris Woakes, and was given out only after India went upstairs for the review.
India could have got another wicket if Jamie Smith wasn’t dropped by KL Rahul at second slip, with the visitors also managing to get the new ball changed after just 10.3 overs. That ball change brought a halt to India’s wicket-taking spree as Smith took three boundaries off Siraj and Bumrah before India had another ball change after just 48 deliveries.
With Smith leading a strong lower-order fightback and India spreading their field, Carse began to grow in confidence by taking boundaries off pacers and singles to bring up fifty of the eighth wicket stand. Smith then creamed an off-drive off Nitish Kumar Reddy, before bringing up his fifty off 52 balls with a single through backward square leg, as a see-saw session of Test cricket came to an end.
Brief scores: England 353/7 in 105 overs (Joe Root 104, Jamie Smith 51 not out; Jasprit Bumrah 4-63, Nitish Kumar Reddy 2-62) against India.
–IANS
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