India beat England by 95 runs at Lords

India clinched their first Test win at the historic Lord’s in nearly three decades as they rode on Ishant Sharma’s inspired spell of fast bowling to demolish England by 95 runs and take a 1-0 lead in the five match series here on Monday.

The lanky speedster, whose consistency has always been under the scanner, delivered when it mattered most, as he grabbed a career-best 7 for 74 to bowl out the home team for a 223 in pursuit of a competitive victory target of 319.

From a relatively comfortable 173 for four, the last six wickets fell for only 50 runs with the final five coming in only 12.2 overs after lunch on an absorbing fifth day’s play.

It took 28 long years for India to win a Test match at the ‘Home of Cricket’ after ‘Kapil Dev’s team achieved the feat back in June 1986 winning by five wickets.

It also marked Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s first significant victory as Test captain outside the sub-continent. The last time India won a Test match outside the South Asian region was back in 2011 when they defeated West Indies in a 1-0 series win.

The victory was achieved in the 89th over when James Anderson tapped a Ravindra Jadeja delivery towards short cover and set off for non-existent single but Jadeja was alert enough to pick up and break the stumps down with a direct throw triggering off instant celebrations.

Skipper Dhoni as usual collected a stump as souvenir as the jubilant players hugged each other with the support staff and reserve bench applauding them from the hallowed balcony.

Resuming at a precarious 105 for four on the final day, the two overnight batsmen Joe Root (66) and Moeen Ali (39) batted with a lot of determination adding 101 runs in 44.4 overs before Ishant struck at the stroke of lunch.

He got one to rear up awkwardly as left-hander Ali took his eyes off the ball in order to fend it. The ball lobbed up at short leg for Cheteshwar Pujara to complete a simple catch.

Ishant, who was declared Man of the Match for his match-winning bowling spell in the second innings, said all his wickets belonged to Dhoni as it was the willy skipper who inspired him to bowl short today.

“Cricket is a great leveller, the way MS (Dhoni) bhai handled the team, the way he keeps on motivating the guys. I think all these wickets are not for me, it is only for the captain. He told me you are tall enough, you have to try the bouncer,” Ishant said.

He also had words of appreciation for the batting department. “The way our batsmen played in the first innings was commendable. Ajinkya played really well in the first innings.

That gave us the momentum. Also the way (Murali) Vijay, Jaddu (Jadeja) and Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar) played,” Ishant said.

Meanwhile, under-fire home team skipper Alastair Cook said he was trying hard to get England back to winning ways and said he will take a call on whether to relinquish captaincy only after the end of the summer.

Cook said he has to lead by example to get England back on track and the only way of doing this was by scoring runs himself.

“I’m trying my heart out to turn this around. First and foremost, I have to start scoring runs. The recent past hasn’t been kind to me, but I have won some games as captain as well,” he said.

“If I am not good enough after the end of summer I will take a call,” an emotional Cook said. Asked about the reason behind England’s prolonged lean patch, Cook said: “Definitely it’s an issue of confidence, and getting over the finish line.

“There is a group of player desperate to win for England. But it will take a lot of determination to turn this around,” he said.

“A lot of our performances have been by the younger guys that’s good for English cricket. Yes, the older guys are not playing as well as their record suggest, same for myself, I have to start scoring runs as well.”

Terming it as a “tough defeat”, Cook said India outplayed them in the match. “It’s a tough defeat, I think we have to give India a lot of credit, they have out-bowled and out-batted us.”

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