For the second match in a row on the England tour, India ended the day one in absolute command at Lord’s. KL Rahul’s redemption in Test cricket continued as he slammed a resilient hundred while Rohit Sharma broke his jinx of failing to convert good starts to smash a scintillating 83. On the back of these batting masterclasses from their openers, India finished the day in a position where they could dictate the game.
The flip of the coin went England’s way once again, and Joe Root decided to bowl first on what looked like a decent surface to bat on. But the conditions were overcast, and the Englishmen had a quality opening bowling duo in James Anderson and Ollie Robinson.
The duo bowled impeccable line and length, inducing the close calls and not giving the batters anything to work with. The Indian openers were up for the task – Rohit and Rahul batted out the early bursts from the English opening bowlers.
At one stage, India’s score was 22/0 in 14 overs before Rohit latched onto Sam Curran’s wayward lines to take 16 runs off the over, after which he did not look back.
Rohit put on a display of his range, playing drives, cuts, pulls, hooks. From 8 runs off 50, he accelerated brilliantly by taking on weaker bowlers and completed his first fifty in England.
Rohit kept scoring at a brisk rate, and KL Rahul was as solid as ever on the other end. The duo stitched a century-run stand for the first wicket – India’s first-ever at Lord’s in 69 years and highest opening stand since 2011.
Just when it looked like Rohit was about to end his drought of an overseas hundred, an absolute peach of a delivery castled his stumps on 83 to give the hosts a breakthrough. Anderson bowled an outswinger on the previous delivery and set Rohit up for an inswinger that swung late to breach the defence.
The English maestro struck one again a few overs later when Cheteshwar Pujara fished at a delivery straight to the slips. In walked Virat Kohli and the crowd lit up anticipating another Anderson vs Kohli battle. Some oohs and aahs, but Kohli survived Anderson’s spell after Tea.
Rahul, on the other hand, had pressed the accelerator after Rohit’s dismissal. He was on 22 off 107 at one point, and the talks of his scoring rate were beginning to brew. Rahul remained patient and took on the English bowlers once they were tired.
His batting, especially against Anderson, was magnificent to an extent where he even protected Kohli from the bowler for a while. He scored the next 80 runs in just 107 deliveries to reach the milestone. Rahul slapped a short and wide delivery from Mark Wood to third man boundary to bring up his fourth century outside Asia. A player of his class, redeeming himself in the most challenging batting conditions, has been a fascinating story of this series so far.
Captain Kohli’s innings was very unlike his usual self. He looked edgy throughout the innings but scratched his way to 42 to put on a 117-run partnership with Rahul for the third wicket. The pair closed any doors possible for England’s comeback into the match.
Kohli, however, could not convert the start into a big score. England had taken a new ball, and in the 85th over, Kohli fiddled with a good length outside off delivery by Robinson only to hand Root an easy catch at first slip.
The day one was completely India’s despite the late blow of Kohli. Rahul remained unbeaten on 127* while Rahane was on 1* at Stumps. The visitors have a chance to build onto this strong platform and bat England out of the game.
Brief Scores
India 276-3 in 90 overs (Rahul 127*, Rohit 83; Anderson 2/52, Robinson 1/47)
