LONDON: Fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Jofra Archer took centre stage on the second day of the third Test as India and England traded blows at Lord’s on Friday and the match remained on a knife-edge.

India’s Bumrah produced a devastating spell in the morning, dismissing Ben Stokes, Joe Root and Chris Woakes before Archer struck with his third delivery to remove Yashasvi Jaiswal in his first Test for four years.

India ended the day on 145-3 in reply to England’s 387, the game evenly poised with both sides bidding to go 2-1 up in the five-match series.

Earlier, Bumrah reduced England to 271-7 in two fiery overs, bowling Stokes for 44 and Root for 104 before dismissing Woakes first ball.

Root, 99 not out overnight, had completed his century off the first ball of the day, flashing hard at Bumrah and leaping in the air as it flew past gully to the third man boundary.

The right-hander raised his bat as he received a standing ovation from the crowd, his 37th Test hundred another masterful display from England’s highest test run scorer of all time.

Stokes had a scare when he attempted a quick single and was well short of the crease when Jaiswal’s throw narrowly missed the stumps.

His reprieve did not last long, however, as Bumrah delivered another searing delivery that crashed into the top of the England captain’s off stump before snaring Root with another peach of a ball that jagged back to remove his middle stump.

Woakes nicked a catch to stand-in wicket-keeper Dhruv Jurel to put Bumrah on a hat-trick, but Brydon Carse played a solid defensive stroke to deny him.

Jamie Smith continued his fine form with crisp strokes around the ground to lift England past 300 and he reached his 50 just before lunch.

Smith’s innings of 51 ended early in the afternoon session when he edged Mohammed Siraj to Jurel, ending a valuable eighth-wicket partnership of 84.

Archer was comprehensively bowled by Bumrah, who finished with impressive figures of 5-74, but Carse reached his maiden test fifty before being bowled by Siraj for 56 to end the innings.

After a wayward first over by Woakes costing 13 runs, Archer took the ball.

His third delivery, timed at 90 miles per hour, clipped the edge of Jaiswal’s bat and flew to second slip where Harry Brook pouched a sharp catch.

K.L. Rahul and Karun Nair defended staunchly in a second-wicket partnership of 61 and were starting to score more freely when Nair, on 40, edged Stokes to Root at first slip and he took an excellent low one-handed catch.

Nair reviewed the decision, which was confirmed, and India captain Shubman Gill arrived at the crease fresh from scoring 430 runs in the last Test at Edgbaston.

He had made only 16, however, when he edged an outswinger to wicketkeeper Smith off Woakes before trudging back to the pavilion.

Rahul reached his fifty from 97 balls, another solid knock by the India opener who was 53 not at the close, and Rishabh Pant played a couple of trademark unorthodox strikes in his unbeaten 19.

SCOREBOARD

ENGLAND (1st Innings, overnigh: 251-4):

Z. Crawley c Pant b Reddy 18

B. Duckett c Pant b Reddy 23

O. Pope c sub (Jurel) b Jadeja 44

J. Root b Bumrah 104

H. Brook b Bumrah 11

B. Stokes b Bumrah 44

J. Smith c sub (Jurel) b Siraj 51

C. Woakes c sub (Jurel) b Bumrah 0

B. Carse b Siraj 56

J. Archer b Bumrah 4

S. Bashir not out 1

EXTRAS (B-11, LB-13, NB-2, W-5) 31

TOTAL (all out, 112.3 overs) 387

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-43 (Duckett), 2-44 (Crawley), 3-153 (Pope), 4-172 (Brook), 5-260 (Stokes), 6-271 (Root), 7-271 (Woakes), 8-355 (Smith), 9-370 (Archer)

BOWLING: Bumrah 27-5-74-5, Deep 23-3-92-0 (1nb), Siraj 23.3-6-85-2 (1w), Reddy 17-0-62-2, Jadeja 12-1-29-1 (1nb), Sundar 10-1-21-0

INDIA (1st Innings):

Y. Jaiswal c Brook b Archer 13

K.L. Rahul not out 53

K. Nair c Root b Stokes 40

S. Gill c Smith b Woakes 16

R. Pant not out 19

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-1, NB-2) 4

TOTAL (for three wickets, 43 overs) 145

STILL TO BAT: N. Reddy, R. Jadeja, W. Sundar, J. Bumrah, A. Deep, M. Siraj

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-13 (Jaiswal), 2-74 (Nair), 3-107 (Gill)

BOWLING: Woakes 13-1-56-1, Archer 10-3-22-1, Carse 8-1-27-0 (2nb), Stokes 6-2-16-1, Bashir 6-1-22-0

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2025