England's talisman Ben Stokes yet again stood tall, this time with the ball in hand to deny India a memorable victory in the third Test at the Lord's Cricket Stadium. The southpaw bowled more than 20 overs and picked up three wickets to enable host a hard-fought 22-run win in the third Test against India. At the start of Day four, a lot of experts doubted Stokes's decision to bowl himself. However, the all-rounder proved everyone wrong when he snaffled the in-form batter KL Rahul for 39 runs within the first hour of play.
The last wicket to fall was one of the ages, as Shoaib Bashir, with broken finger spun a ball which number 11 Siraj just could not keep the ball out. The pacer was in haunches for eternity before Jadeja consoled him. The all-rounder fought brilliantly with an unbeaten 61 runs.
However it was Stokes who was the game-changer for the hosts. Apart from the southpaw, Jofra Archer was the pick of the bowler as he ended up taking three wickets. The pacer took the all-important wicket of Rishabh Pant and dented the visitors' hopes of winning the game. If not for all-rounder Jadeja's valiant effort, India would have been bundled out below 100 runs.
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The day started on an inauspicious note for the visitors as they first lost Pant, then Rahul, and Sundar for a duck. At that time, it looked like England would win the match in the first session itself. However, Jadeja fought - first with Bumrah and latter with Siraj to delay the inevitable.
Joe Root, Stokes & Jofra Archer chief protagonists in England's epic win
While Stokes and Archer bailed England with the ball in hand, the hosts' star batter Root, batted exceptionally well in the first innings to score a classy 100. His efforts allowed the hosts to post 387 runs on a challenging Lord's surface. While India matched the hosts' total in the first innings on the back of Rahul's 100, in the end, it was not enough as the batters failed collectively to chase 193 runs in the fourth innings.
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