With win in sight, gritty India fall short at the end of Lord's thriller

Jadeja's resistance almost takes India home before hosts strike after tea to seal 22-run win in 3rd Test

- Rasesh Mandani

The difference between winners England and India was 22 runs, but if you take grit and resolve into account, both teams proved equals.

The play on a fascinating final day showed that Test cricket can challenge you in ways undreamt of. The slow grind, the marathon spells, the unexpected stand and finally, the heartbreaking defeat.

In the end, it was off-spinner Shoaib Bashir, bowling with a broken (non-bowling) hand, who produced a delivery that Mohammed Siraj (4 off 30 balls) seemed to defend well before it rolled back onto the stumps to take down one of the bails after tea on the final day's play at Lord's.

England won the third Test to take a 2-1 lead in the series, bowling India out for 170, but they know that winning the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy will not come easy.

As a distraught Siraj sat on his haunches, the England players, having completed their celebrations, came over to console him. There would be no consolation but it was nice to see that after five hard days on the field, sportsmanship was the order of the day.

Player-of-the-match Ben Stokes exchanged a hug with Ravindra Jadeja (61 not out off 181 balls), who with his 266-minute stay threatened to do what appeared impossible at lunch on when India were tottering on 112/8, still 81 runs adrift of their target.

A sizeable contingent in the crowd wearing blue had thronged to the ground, hopeful that India would chase down the required 136 runs to make it a third Test win in four matches for India at the iconic ground. Even though they would have admired the fight, the result would have hurt.

Within the first 35 minutes of the final day's play, England took two key wickets of Rishabh Pant (9) and KL Rahul (39) to snuff out India's fire.