LONDON (AP) — England was on the brink of winning the Lord’s test against India on the fifth and final day Monday, needing only two more wickets to take a 2-1 lead in their series.
England took four wickets in the morning session to reduce India to 112-8, still 81 runs from the target of 193.
England looked like it was going to roll up India in the first hour when it dismissed Rishabh Pant, Lokesh Rahul and Washington Sundar in the first 40 minutes.
India was 82-7 but, critically, the Dukes ball was rapidly losing its hardness and turning into a marshmallow.
No. 7 batter Ravindra Jadeja was joined by No. 9 Nitish Kumar Reddy and together they chipped 30 runs off the target in 91 balls.
But on the stroke of lunch, Reddy edged Chris Woakes behind and was out for a hard-fought 13.
Jadeja was 17 not out and India’s last and lonely hope.
Only specialist quicks Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah were left.
England started the day with a slight advantage given it reduced India to 58-4 on Sunday evening. Also, so swiftly had India collapsed that the new ball was only 17.4 overs and still had bite.
England’s Jofra Archer and captain Ben Stokes put on a show of fast bowling on Monday.
Rahul, 33 not out, was joined in the middle by Pant. Their partnerships have tallied more than 500 runs against England in the series, including 141 in the first innings.
But Pant lasted only 15 minutes, his off stump sent flying by Archer in the 21st over.
The wicket of the set Rahul was a bigger blow for India. He was out lbw in the 24th to Stokes on review after inching to 39 off 58 balls.
Washington Sundar faced only four balls when he gave a return catch to Archer, who took a spectacular one-handed grab.
India was 82-7 but could still put out Jadeja and Reddy, both of them averaging in the 30s with centuries to their name.
They reduced the target to under 100 and managed to handle Archer, Stokes and Brydon Carse. But the late introduction of Woakes, England’s attack leader, struck another blow when his ninth delivery was edged behind by Reddy.
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