Lord’s Test between India and England turned out to be a fiery affair with players from both the teams involved in heated exchanges which sometimes required the on-field umpires’ interventions. India were particularly aggressive during the fifth and final day’s play on Monday that culminated into a big win for them as they took a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
Centurion KL Rahul explained the reason behind the approach hinting that England sledging Jasprit Bumrah during his game-changing unbeaten partnership with Mohammed Shami for the ninth wicket fired them up.
Bumraj was peppered with short deliveries with bowler Mark Wood, wicketkeeper Jos Buttler and England captain Joe Root exchanging words with the India tailender.
England seemingly were responding to Bumrah’s that over to James Anderson on Saturday that saw the Indian pacer employing short-ball tactics which the hosts weren’t impressed with.
With Bumrah dealing with a hostile England on the final day, even India captain Virat Kohli from the Lord’s balcony got involved making his displeasure known.
“That’s what you expect with two competitive teams – great skills, and a few words as well. We don’t mind some banter. You go after one of our guys and all 11 of us will come right back,” Rahul said after the contest ended with India registering a 151-run win.
For his sublime 129 in the first innings that set the base for India’s win, Rahul was chosen as the player-of-the-match and he admitted to be regularly checking the famous Lord’s honors board for his name to have found a permanent place.
“I’ve been looking at it every morning to see if they’ve put it on permanently. They haven’t – it’s still a temporary piece of paper,” he said.
Rahul praised India’s batting for being disciplined.
“To put on 360 on the board was really crucial, very happy. Been here for a couple of months now and been working really hard on our skills. Even in the first game at Trent Bridge the batsmen have shown a lot of discipline,” Rahul said.
