India walked off Lord’s on Monday evening drained but far from disheartened. Chasing 258, they were bowled out for 235 in fading light, handing England a 23-run win and a 2-1 advantage in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. The margin was slim, the contest tense, and Shubman Gill could not hide his pride in a side that had been 82 for 7 before lunch.
“I’m extremely proud, this is as close as a Test match can get,” Gill said at the presentation. “Five days of hard-fought cricket, comes down to the last session, last wicket. I’m extremely proud.”
Key to that fight was Ravindra Jadeja. Batting for 181 balls, the all-rounder finished unbeaten on 61 and somehow coaxed 88 runs out of the last three wickets: 30 with Nitish Reddy, 35 with Jasprit Bumrah, 23 with Mohammed Siraj. When off-spinner Shoaib Bashir finally pinned Siraj lbw, Jadeja was left marooned, bat tucked under his arm, England’s players swarming around Bashir in celebration.
Gill resisted the urge to interfere. “He’s very experienced,” he said of Jadeja. “We didn’t want to give him any message. He was batting brilliantly with the tail. Wanted him and the tail to bat as long as possible.”
Even so, India know the game slipped a night earlier. They were 42 for 1 near stumps on day four and cruising, only to lose Karun Nair, Gill himself and nightwatcher Akash Deep in a frantic half-hour. “The last one hour that we played [on day four], I think we could’ve applied ourselves a bit better,” the captain admitted. “Even this morning … we were hoping for one 50-run partnership, if we got it from the top order, it would’ve been easy for us.”
That theme ran through Gill’s assessment. He felt one calm stand would have cracked a modest target. “There was always hope, as long as there’s batting,” he said. “[Needed] one 50-run partnership. The target wasn’t massive, one 50-60-run partnership and we were right back into the game.”
He also pointed to an incident on day two that changed the mood. Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul had added exactly 100 and were steering India towards a lead when Ben Stokes, diving at cover, threw down the non-striker’s stumps. Pant, on 74, was short. “Definitely,” Gill replied when asked if the run-out hurt. “At one point I thought if we get a lead of 80-100, it might be crucial. We knew on the fifth day on this wicket, it won’t be easy to chase 150-200.”
Instead, England’s lower order eked out 71 priceless runs on the fourth afternoon, and India spent the final session of the match clinging on through Jadeja’s defiance. They leave Lord’s behind in the series, yet with evidence their depth still bites. As Gill put it, “One partnership away.”
