England-India Test series nicely poised after drama at Lord's

India and England produced another great advertisement for Test cricket with a tense encounter at Lord’s in the third of the five-match series.

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A packed crowd at the home of cricket witnessed a dramatic final day on Monday in which England held on to win by just 22 runs after an admirable Indian fightback led by Ravindra Jadeja.

England were inspired by captain Ben Stokes whose all-round performance including a lengthy spell of accurate bowling earned him Player of the Match.

The result leaves the series delicately poised at 2-1 in England’s favour. But there is so little to choose between the teams, it is impossible to predict the outcome of the fourth Test which begins at Old Trafford on Wednesday.

England will be without spinner Shoaib Bashir who has been ruled out of the rest of the series with a broken finger. Despite his injury Bashir bravely came on to bowl near the end of the Lord’s match and was overjoyed at taking the precious final wicket. Hampshire spinner Liam Dawson has been called up as a replacement.