DHAKA: India  295 ( A Rahane 103 , B Kumar 36,C Pujara 28 , V Kohli 26 ,J.M Anderson 4/60 ,S Broad 2/79,) & 342 ( M Vijay 95,R A Jadeja 68 , B Kumar 52,C Pujara 43 , B A Stokes 3/ 51, L Plunket 3/ 65 ) beat England 319 ( GS Ballanace 112, L Plunket 55* , M Ali 32 ,B Kumar 6/82 , Jadeja 2/46) and 223 ( JE Root 66 , M Ali 39 , I Sharma 7/ 74 ) by 95 Runs.   

Played At Lords. Man of the Match: Ishant Sharma 

Dhoni’s young Team India paid England back on their own coins of pace, bounce, seam and swing winning by 95 runs at Cricket Mecca Lords in the second test of the Investec series. English bowlers are expected to thrive from typical English bowling condition that prevailed at Lords. But it was Indian bowlers instead who exploited the situation to their advantage. 

The first test was drawn. With three more to play India is looking good with 1-0 lead. It was a long wait for 1124 days since India last won a Test overseas.  It has been 28 years since India last won a Test at Lord's. 

The lion at home India was playing like mickey house overseas. On a juicy wicket having appreciable bounce and swing Indian pace trio Mohammad Sami, Bhuneswar Kumar and finally Ishant Sharma bowled brilliantly leading India to a famous win. 

It was a major win for India post Tendulkar, Dravid, Laksman age and will go a long way in building the moral of the young team. 

English Captain AN Cook won the toss and without any hesitation put India into bat on a perfect condition of seam and swing on a juicy wicket offering plenty of assistance to English pacers. Indian batsmen unaccustomed to play on such a surface were constantly teased and harassed as Anderson, Broad and Plunket exploited the situation extremely efficiently.

At 7/145 India was really struggling with only young A Rahane left with tail enders to fight and fight he did scoring a brilliant 103. His innings on a very difficult wicket held the Indian innings together. 

Another youngsters B Kumar more known for his bowling extended great support to Rahane in 90 run eight wicket partnership which avoided India getting bundled out to a cheaper first innings. Kumar contributed 36. Rahane played 229 balls for his 110 which included 15 fours and a six.

His courageous innings saved India from embarrassment and in the ultimately analysis contributed in a way for Indian fight back later on with good bowling and efficient second innings batting. Anderson was the wrecker in chief for the Englishmen with his 4/60 with Broad and Ben Stokes assisting him effectively. 

When England batted they found going tougher as young B Kumar started swinging prodigiously in both directions. Sami and Sharma although not much successful in taking wickets .But they kept probing, making life very difficult for English batsmen. Only G Balance could resist Kumar’s surge with a solid 112 and at later stage Plunkets resistance led England take a slender lead 24 runs in the first innings. 

Kumar’s 6/82 was his career best and at times he really looked unplayable. When India started batting again their top three batted reasonably well and with a solid second wicket partnership of 78 between Vijay and Pujara India was looking set for a sizable lead. But some quick wickets brought England back in the game with India reduced at 7/235.  

Vijay played a solid 95. In came Jadeja and Kumar two future all-rounders of Indian cricket. They produced the match winning 99 runs eight wicket partnership.  

Jadeja scored 68 and Kumar again batted well for his 52. Indian score of 342 produced 318 runs challenging lead with lot of time to play.

In the second innings Ishant Sharma appeared with a different idea. Dhoni surprisingly started with Jadeja and immediately got his plan implemented as Jadeja trapped Robson plumb in front. 

Sharma started bouncing at pace and teasing the English batsmen. The day four ended at 105 /4 and England still in the game. 

On the fifth morning M Ali and J Root took the fight to the Indians with 101 run 5 th wicket partnership when Sharma grew a monster running through English batting  with a superb spell of pace and bounce . 

The last 5 English wickets went down for 50 runs. England collapsed from 5/173 to 223 all out. 

This was a great Indian win by 95 runs their first overseas test win after almost four years. It was first Indian test win at Lords after almost three decades. England after the retirement of the golden era of great Indian maestros Tendulkar, Darvid, Ganguly and Laxman were looking a little dodgy. 

Their reign at the top of the ICC test ranking was short lived. India was white washed at the hands of England and Australia. India and its captain Dhoni were coming under strong criticism. Of all people Ishant Sharma was severely criticized for his underperformance for a while. And that Ishant has produced one of the best bowling spell on India on English soil ever which could even make the great Kapil Dev proud. 

With three more tests still to go India has to play consistently well. But one thing they can take heart that they won the match without much contribution from two of their talented players of the present team S Dhawan and V Kohli.

BDST 1313 HRS, JUL 22, 2014