Best ninth wicket partnership, Siraj’s magic at Lord's, and more

Who says Test cricket is boring? In a span of 24 hours, we witnessed two enthralling Test matches. West Indies won by one wicket in Kingston and India in this Test. With a 154-run lead at the start of the fifth day, India were reliant on Rishabh Pant to get them to safety. But, what turned out after his early exit was totally unexpected. Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah put on an unbeaten 89-run partnership to give India a complete upper hand with a lead of 271.

The pair continued their partnership, but this time it was with the ball in hand. Bumrah provided the breakthrough in the first over and Shami followed it up with another opener's wicket in the second over. The wickets kept tumbling, but the biggest blow was delivered by Bumrah in the 23rd over, the first over after Tea. Joe Root handed an easy catch to Virat Kohli at first slip. Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali provided some resistance. But, Mohammed Siraj came in with a double breakthrough. Buttler and Ollie Robinson batted for another 75 balls before Bumrah struck with a slower ball. From there, it took just one over to clean up the rest and India won by 151 runs. The fifth day was filled with records and here is a list of them:

Highest ninth-wicket partnership in England

After the early exit of Pant, India were in a dire situation with a lead of only 167 runs. Shami and Bumrah came together for the ninth wicket to hoist an unbeaten 89-run partnership and propel the lead to 271. This became the highest ninth-wicket partnership for India in England. Overall at Lord’s, this is the fourth highest ninth-wicket partnership.

A tale of ducks

The England top order (1-3) has been in real disarray this year. In the fourth innings, they added another horrific record. Both openers were removed for a duck and this became the first instance of both England openers suffering a duck in the same innings of a home Test. That’s not the end of duck tales. Burns alone has suffered five ducks in this year, which is the joint most for an opener in a calendar year. Adding salt to injury, England batsmen had suffered seven ducks in this match, which is also their joint most.

Root’s dominance

In the first two matches played this series, it has been India v Root rather than India against England. In this series, Root has scored 386 runs which is 23 more runs than what Burns has scored all over the year. For your knowledge, Burns with 363 is England’s second highest run-scorer this year. Taking a step further, the difference of runs between Root and Burns this year is nearly 1000 runs (914). This is the highest difference of runs between the top two runs scorers of a team in a calendar year. Sir Vivian Richards had a difference of 881 in 1976 when he had scored 1710 and Roy Fredricks had 829 to his name.

Sam Curran bags a king pair

The lower-order batsman who troubled India the most in the last series had an agonizing match. In both the innings, Sam Curran suffered golden ducks, which is termed as king pair (when a batsman bags ducks in both the innings of a Test it is deemed as a pair. If they suffer golden ducks in both, then it is the king pair). For England, Curran was the fourth batsman to suffer this fate. The last England batsman to suffer this was James Anderson in 2016 in the Visakhapatnam Test against India.

Virat Kohli surpasses Clive Lloyd

The golden boy of India etches another record to his name. Either with bat or his captaincy, he will always be knocking on the door of records and this win was also a special one. He went past the great Clive Lloyd in the count of wins in Tests. With 37 wins, Kohli is now fourth in the overall list with Steve Waugh (41), Ricky Ponting (48) and Graeme Smith (53) above him.

A Siraj special at Lord’s

In both the innings with the ball, Siraj was the star of the show. Barring his bizarre DRS calls, Siraj displayed some exceptional bowling, especially against the left-handers. Two times in this match, Siraj was on a hat-trick, but couldn’t get one. In both innings, he bagged four wickets each and ended up with match figures of 8/126. This is the best spell by an Indian at the Home of Cricket, Lord’s. Previously Kapil Dev in 1982 had registered 8 for 168 runs.

Root’s first in a loss

Root has been the heart and soul of this current England batting line-up. He is such a match winner that, none of his 21 centuries prior to this were in a losing cause. Out of the 21 centuries, 16 were in wins and five were in drawn matches. This Lord’s century became the first for him in a defeat. In addition, the 213 runs scored in this match is the second highest score in a losing cause for an English captain. Sir Alastair Cook’s 217 against India in Ahmedabad is the highest.

Finally, a century in win by an Indian opener

What a dream return it has been for KL Rahul in whites. Not only did he engrave his name on the honors board of Lord’s, but he also joined an elite list. Though Indian openers have scored centuries outside Asia, India have hardly ended up winning the match. Sunil Gavaskar in 1976 and 1977 had three centuries outside Asia that helped India win. 44 years later, KL Rahul became the second Indian opener to feat this record. His 129 in the first innings is also the highest.