Team India won the second Test of the series against England at Lord’s by 151 runs and scripted one of the most special overseas Test wins. Talking about the same in a video uploaded by BCCI, skipper Virat Kohli said that this win was right up there among many wins abroad just because of the belief and character the team showed on the final day.
Talking about winning a Test match at the Home of Cricket, Kohli after the game said, “Quite amazing! More than Lord’s or anything of that sort, I mean, we’re not really bothered about where we play, to be very honest… we don’t rank some games in some stadiums in higher pecking order than the others. But, having said that, we won in 2014, 2018 was a bad loss for us here, even then we had the belief that we can upset England at home but we couldn’t manage to do that especially at Lord’s, that really hurt us a lot.”
Kohli believed that they were on top in even the first Test at Trent Bridge with 150-odd runs needed on the final day having nine wickets in the bag but rain robbed both teams of a possible result and said that team carried that belief from thereon mentioning the 126-run stand by the openers KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma on Day 1 after they were being put in to bat first.
“To get a result within 60 overs on Day 5 when the pitch wasn’t offering anything to the bowlers. All I can say is that I’m really proud of the team. We’ve had some amazing overseas wins but this one is right up there just because of the belief and character we showed and that’s been the hallmark of our team,” Kohli further added.
With only one recognised batsman in Rishabh Pant in the middle and a lead of just 154 runs, Team India were up against it on the final day and they had to do something special to save the match, winning was a long way away.
Reliving Lord’s triumph from the dressing room
The range of emotions, the reactions & the aura in the #TeamIndia dressing room post the historic win at the @HomeOfCricket. – by @RajalArora
Watch this special feature #ENGvINDhttps://t.co/9WFzGX4rDi pic.twitter.com/uR63cLS7j4
— BCCI (@BCCI) August 17, 2021
Pant fell early after hitting a couple of boundaries, Ishant Sharma too got out cheaply and at 209/8 with the lead of 182 runs, the visitors were running out of their batsmen and were falling short of a respectable score, which they could feel safe about as a target for the hosts England. But then came the resurgence and two of the unlikeliest players stood up when the team needed them the most.
Pacers Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah stitched an unbeaten 89-run partnership as both lower-order batsmen made a mockery of England’s bowling attack. Shami brought up his second half-century in Test matches and both have been in England as he scored 56* runs off 70 balls while Bumrah supported him with a knock of 34*.
India declared soon after lunch and they had 60 overs to bowl out England. Pumped up Bumrah and Shami knocked over both the openers as they set the tone for thee innings. England skipper Joe Root and Haseeb Hameed stopped the wicket flow for a while before Ishant Sharma spring into the action removing the latter and Jonny Bairstow in quick succession.
Root then found support in Jos Buttler, before Bumrah came back to take the most important wicket for India. Moeen and Buttler then kept the Indian bowlers at bay for a long period before the fourth pacer, Mohammed Siraj came back to bowl the match-winning spell. He sent back Moeen and Sam Curran in back-to-back balls and it was just a matter of time before the tourists wrapped up the proceedings.
Siraj ended up with eight wickets for the match as all the four pacers chipped in to bowl out England for 120 in the final innings.
You can watch the full video here.
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