Lord's Test hangs in balance after close day two
But it was India pacer Jasprit Bumrah who had the maximum impact in the first hour of play, getting rid off Root (104), Ben Stokes (44) and Chris Woakes (0) with the second new ball.
Resilient fifties from Jamie Smith (51) and Brydon Carse (56) helped the hosts close in on the 400-mark, but regular strikes from the Indian pacers meant that they were bowled out for 387.
Bumrah picked yet another five-wicket haul to follow up his first innings effort in Leeds. This was the pacer's 15th five-wicket haul in the format.
Jofra Archer playing his first Test since February 2021, made an immediate impact picking up Yashasvi Jaiswal in his first over.
KL Rahul and Karun Nair rebuilt for India, but Ben Stokes struck his magic when India were on 74 to send back Nair. The batter edged one in between the wicketkeeper and the first slip, where Joe Root dived to his left to take a one-handed stunner. This was Root's 211th catch, making him the player with most catches in Tests.

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Gulf Today
3 hours ago
- Gulf Today
Bumrah and Archer light up Lord's on topsy-turvy Day 2
Fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Jofra Archer took centre stage on the second day of the third Test as India and England traded blows at Lord's on Friday and the match remained on a knife-edge. India's Bumrah produced a devastating spell in the morning, dismissing Ben Stokes, Joe Root and Chris Woakes before Archer struck with his third delivery to remove Yashasvi Jaiswal in his first Test for four years. Express quick Archer shone at Lord's during England's 2019 50-over World Cup final win and also made his Test debut that season at the ground, where his bouncer concussed Australia's Steve Smith. India ended the day on 145-3 in reply to England's 387, the game evenly poised with both sides bidding to go 2-1 up in the five-match series. Earlier, Bumrah reduced England to 271-7 in two fiery overs, bowling Stokes for 44 and Root for 104 before dismissing Woakes first ball. Root, 99 not out overnight, had completed his century off the first ball of the day, flashing hard at Bumrah and leaping in the air as it flew past gully to the third man boundary. The right-hander raised his bat as he received a standing ovation from the crowd, his 37th Test hundred another masterful display from England's highest Test run scorer of all time. Stokes had a scare when he attempted a quick single and was well short of the crease when Jaiswal's throw narrowly missed the stumps. His reprieve did not last long, however, as Bumrah delivered another searing delivery that crashed into the top of the England captain's off stump before snaring Root with another peach of a ball that jagged back to remove his middle stump. Woakes nicked a catch to stand-in wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel to put Bumrah on a hat-trick, but Brydon Carse played a solid defensive stroke to deny him. Jamie Smith continued his fine form with crisp strokes around the ground to lift England past 300 and he reached his 50 just before lunch. Smith's innings of 51 ended early in the afternoon session when he edged Mohammed Siraj to Jurel, ending a valuable eighth-wicket partnership of 84. Archer was comprehensively bowled by Bumrah, who finished with impressive figures of 5-74, but Carse reached his maiden Test fifty before being bowled by Siraj for 56 to end the innings. Bumrah, playing just his second Test match at Lord's, picked his 13th five-wicket haul at the iconic venue and has now gone past the legendary Kapil Dev to hold the record for most five-fors picked by an Indian bowler in overseas conditions. After a wayward first over by Woakes costing 13 runs, Archer took the ball. His third delivery, timed at 90 miles per hour, clipped the edge of Jaiswal's bat and flew to second slip where Harry Brook pouched a sharp catch. Archer wheeled away in delight before being mobbed by his team mates, the relief on his face evident after a succession of injury problems had threatened his career. KL Rahul and Karun Nair defended staunchly in a second-wicket partnership of 61 and were starting to score more freely when Nair, on 40, edged Stokes to Root at first slip and he took an excellent low one-handed catch. Nair reviewed the decision, which was confirmed, and India captain Shubman Gill arrived at the crease fresh from scoring 430 runs in the last Test at Edgbaston. He had made only 16, however, when he edged an outswinger to wicketkeeper Smith off Woakes before trudging back to the pavilion. Rahul reached his fifty from 97 balls, another solid knock by the India opener who was 53 not at the close, and Rishabh Pant played a couple of trademark unorthodox strikes in his unbeaten 19. Pant, coming out after suffering a left index finger injury, hitting three quick boundaries off Shoaib Bashir, including a swipe over mid-wicket to perfection. With England's bowlers asking varied questions to the Indian batters on a slow pitch showing signs of quickening up, Rahul was at his patient and determined best to hit five boundaries in his knock coming off 113 balls. Agencies Scoreboard at stumps on the second day of the third Test between England and India at Lord's on Friday: England 1st Innings (overnight: 251-4) J. Root b Bumrah 104 B. Stokes b Bumrah 44 J. Smith c sub (Dhruv Jurel) b Siraj 51 C. Woakes c sub (Dhruv Jurel) b Bumrah 0 B. Carse b Siraj 56 J. Archer b Bumrah 4 S. Bashir not out 1 Extras (b11, lb13, nb2, w5) 31 Total (all out, 112.3 overs, 556 mins) 387 Fall of wickets: 1-43 (Duckett), 2-44 (Crawley), 3-153 (Pope), 4-172 (Brook), 5-260 (Stokes), 6-271 (Root), 7-271 (Woakes), 8-355 (Smith), 9-370 (Archer), 10-387 (Carse) Bowling: Bumrah 27-5-74-5; Deep 23-3-92-0 (1nb); Siraj 23.3-6-85-2 (1w); Reddy 17-0-62-2; Jadeja 12-1-29-1 (1nb); Sundar 10-1-21-0 India 1st Innings Y. Jaiswal c Brook b Archer 13 KL Rahul not out 53 K. Nair c Root b Stokes 40 S. Gill c Smith b Woakes 16 R. Pant not out 19 Extras (b1, lb1, nb2) 4 Total (3 wkts, 43 overs, 216 mins) 145 Fall of wickets: 1-13 (Jaiswal), 2-74 (Nair), 3-107 (Gill) Bowling: Woakes 13-1-56-1; Archer 10-3-22-1; Carse 8-1-27-0 (2nb); Stokes 6-2-16-1; Bashir 6-1-22-0


Gulf Today
6 hours ago
- Gulf Today
Indian sprinter Animesh Kujur makes Diamond League history
Animesh Kujur made Diamond League history on Friday when he became the first Indian sprinter to race on the circuit, finishing fourth in an invitational 200m won by Australian Gout Gout. Inspired by Jamaican legend Usain Bolt, Kujur had told AFP on Thursday of his delight of bumping into Olympic 100 and 200m champions Noah Lyles and Letsile Tebogo at lunch, enjoying a selfie with the duo as reality hit that he is now rubbing shoulders with the current sprinting elite. Kujur did not, however, race against the vaunted pair, instead featuring in the under-23 200m on an evening loaded with top stars of track and field. The favourite for the Indian's race was none other than widely-touted Australian teen prodigy Gout Gout, often compared to a younger Bolt but also finding his feet among the big boys. He duly won in 20.10 seconds, with Kujur clocking 20.55sec in fourth. "I'm disappointed with my time, but really pleased to have run here and proud to have been India's first sprinter at a Diamond League," Kujur told AFP. His coach Martin Owens added: "A 1.9m/s headwind did not help and lane eight. No excuses though, it's a really proud moment for Animesh and the Indian sprinters on their journey to international level." Kujur has enjoyed a mean streak of form coming into Monaco, setting national records of 10.18 and 20.27sec in the 100 and 200m respectively. The 22-year-old, born in a tribal village in Chhattisgarh, a landlocked state in central India, put his improved form down to a two-week camp in Switzerland. There he worked on body mechanics and his start out of the blocks with Owens, who is based in the eastern state of Odisha, and Swiss-based bobsleigh performance coach Chris Woolley. "Because of that, my time improved so much," he said, adding that time away from merely domestic competition was also a game changer. "It's a very nice thing that I'm competing with athletes who are faster than me. Whenever I compete with faster athletes, my times improve." Owens is head coach of the high performance centre in Odisha set up by the Reliance Foundation in 2019 to provide impetus to various philanthropic initiatives of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries, the retail-to-refining giant led by Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani and India's most valuable company by market capitalisation. Ambani's wife Nita, a member of the International Olympic Committee since 2016, heads up the foundation, which helps fund invaluable European circuit experience for the likes of Kujur. "It's a massive step up for him," Englishman Owens told AFP. "In my three years in the job, I see people that just want to be better. "They don't want to be the best in India, they want to be competing on a world stage." Kujur faces a tough jump to make the 20.16sec qualifying mark for the world championships in Tokyo in September, but he was in confident mood. "What I'm feeling now is I'm going to crack that time," he said. "I'm feeling like 20.10 I'm going to run. "I'll get more confidence from the bigger competitors I'm up against. They'll bring me energy. "Big athletes means international medallists so I'm feeling happy that I'm going to compete with them." Speaking of Lyles and Tebogo, Kujur said: "I saw them in the dining hall. I used to see them on Instagram only, not in reality. "So when I saw them for the first time in my life, I went and I took a photo with them. "They're very nice. They said, 'Yeah, bro, come and let's take a photo'. I felt like, oh wow, that I am on a bigger stage now. I have to act like a pro athlete." With India mulling a bid for the 2036 Summer Olympics, Owens was in no doubt a sprint revolution is under way in India, much in the same way the javelin took off after Neeraj Chopra was crowned Olympic champion in Tokyo, followed up by world gold in 2023 and an Olympic silver in Paris. "We've got a group of young sprinters that are all around about the same standard and they're just going to keep pushing each other," he said, emphasising the importance of the 4x100m relay for further exposure. "They've already broken the national record this year. "They've just got to believe that the relay is an important entrance into it and then they can get to rub shoulders with Noah Lyles, Karsten Warholm and Shericka Jackson. "They'll train harder, smarter, get motivated and driven, and get some belief." Agence France-Presse

Int'l Cricket Council
15 hours ago
- Int'l Cricket Council
Lord's Test hangs in balance after close day two
Joe Root began the day with a streaky four, that helped him to his 37th Test hundred, taking him past Steve Smith and Rahul Dravid in the process. With this ton, Root sits at the fifth position in the all-time list. Sachin Tendulkar (51 Test hundreds), Jacques Kallis (45), Ricky Ponting (41), and Kumar Sangakkara (38) are the only ones ahead of him. But it was India pacer Jasprit Bumrah who had the maximum impact in the first hour of play, getting rid off Root (104), Ben Stokes (44) and Chris Woakes (0) with the second new ball. Resilient fifties from Jamie Smith (51) and Brydon Carse (56) helped the hosts close in on the 400-mark, but regular strikes from the Indian pacers meant that they were bowled out for 387. Bumrah picked yet another five-wicket haul to follow up his first innings effort in Leeds. This was the pacer's 15th five-wicket haul in the format. Jofra Archer playing his first Test since February 2021, made an immediate impact picking up Yashasvi Jaiswal in his first over. KL Rahul and Karun Nair rebuilt for India, but Ben Stokes struck his magic when India were on 74 to send back Nair. The batter edged one in between the wicketkeeper and the first slip, where Joe Root dived to his left to take a one-handed stunner. This was Root's 211th catch, making him the player with most catches in Tests.