365 Sporting Days

With tickets at £110 a day for the first 3 days I took the decision to only go for the first 2 days at Lord’s, I later added Day 4 for £80, but decided to sell that ticket to a friend as my daughter is here, visiting from Paris.

My decision meant I saw just over 8 overs of cricket live.  On Day 1, I watched the rain fall all day, leaving just before the match was called off for the day.  I did however manager to catch a glimpse of a few players walking across the field to practice.  Including Virat Kohli, it can’t be underestimated how India fans love to see photos of their captain!

The umpires appeared several times, but to no avail, Lord’s had their first rained off day for years!  The day wasn’t abandoned until close to 5pm, that meant a lot of beer and champagne was no doubt purchased, but the total lack of play means all will get their money refunded.

I set off to Lord’s for Day 2, leaving a sunny Essex.  The toss happened before I arrived; Joe Root won and chose to bowl, that was a no brainier with conditions as they were.

Jimmy Anderson struck in the first over, with a peach of a ball, he bowled Vijay and India were 0 for 1.

Pujara came in at 3, replacing Shikhar Dhawan.  Rahul played a couple of great shots, hitting 2 classy boundaries, but he too fell victim to the skills of Jimmy Anderson.  He was caught by Jonny Bairstow for 8, the 2 boundaries being the sum of his innings.  India were 10 for 2 when Virat Kohli walked to the wicket.

The rain intervened, I managed to get myself a seat in the Lower Compton behind the sight screen so I couldn’t really see what was going on with the weather.  But, play was delayed for 2 hours.

I was thoroughly fed up, although I had brought a book to read.  I made my way back to my seat, you get a good view of the clouds in the Compton Upper and they looked ominous.  Sure enough with only 9 balls bowled the players started to head back into the pavilion, only to re-emerge almost straight away.

That proved to be something of a disaster for India, Pujara knocked the ball a short distance and he and Kohli set off.  The debutant Ollie Pope rushed for the ball and was able to take his time in taking the bails off, Kohli had retreated back into his crease, meaning Pujara was teh man on his way back to the pavilion for the duration of the innings.  This was what I like to call a ‘Comedy run out’  when both batsmen are at the same, wrong, end.  India were 15 for 3.

As Pujara was walking back to the pavilion the rain literally chucked down, I got completely soaked.  That was too much for me, having wasted a whole day the day before, while my daughter was at home, I couldn’t face the same thing again, so home it was for me.

That meant I missed Jimmy Anderson turning his 2 wickets into 5, as India were bowled out for 107.  Chris Woakes took the key wicket of Virat Kohli for 23 and Ravi Ashwin top scored with 29.

It was almost as if the weather had liaised with England to ensure it produced conditions to suit them. Day 3 saw a fairly decent day weather wise.  Keaton Jennings was trapped LBW by Ishant Sharma, and looked plumb, after conferring with Alastair Cook he used up and wasted one of England’s 2 appeals.

Cook was following Jennings back to the pavilion after edging a Mohammed Shami ball to Karthik, England were 32 for 2 and 20 year old Ollie Pope joined his captain at the crease.

I was spending the day with family so missed seeing the rest of the England innings, but, Pope scored a respectable 28.

Root was out for 19 and Jos Buttler 24, taking England to 131 for 5.  Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes  put on 189 runs, with Woakes reaching his century,  Bairstow fell short by 7 runs as he was caught by Karthik from the bowling of Hardik Pandya.

England finished the day with a lead of 250 on 357 for 6, strangely they batted on the following morning, much to the disquiet of the BBC TMS commentators.  Sam Curran made 40 before skying a Pandya ball, he was caught by Shami and Joe Root declared with  the lead at 289, Chris Woakes finished on 137 Not Out, a very fine innings for surely one of the nicest men in cricket.

India had a huge task on their hands, it was one they weren’t equal to.  They were bowled out for 130.  In the midst of the carnage Jimmy Anderson took his 100th wicket at Lord’s, ending with 9 for 43 in the game.  Stuart Broad took 4 for 44 and Chris Woakes 2 for 24.  A test match this India team will want to forget as they were beaten by an innings and 159 runs.