Five-wicket Anderson stars for slipshod England against India

England's James Anderson (L) celebrates catching out India's Ravindra Jadeja with England's Mark Wood on the second day of the second cricket Test match between England and India at Lord's cricket ground in London on 13 August 2021 | AFP

James Anderson's latest five-wicket haul kept England in the second Test against India at Lord's on Friday following some poor fielding by his team-mates.

Anderson, already England's most successful Test bowler, took 5-62 in 29 overs as India were dismissed for 364 on the second day after losing the toss.

At tea, England were 23-0 in reply with both Rory Burns and Dom Sibley 11 not out. Sibley had been at risk of being dropped before Zak Crawley, averaging just 11 in Tests this year, was omitted to make way for Haseeb Hameed.

But belying his reputation for slow scoring, Sibley got off the mark sixth ball by driving Ishant Sharma for four. Earlier, England finally saw the back of KL Rahul after the India opener was out for 129 after adding just two runs to his overnight score.

England's James Anderson celebrates taking the wicket of India's Ajinkya Rahane for 1 on the second day of the second cricket Test match between England and India at Lord's cricket ground in London on 13 August 2021. | AFP

India resumed on 276-3 after Rahul had batted in largely difficult conditions throughout the whole of Thursday's play. But having scored two off Friday's first ball, from Ollie Robinson, Rahul mistimed a drive, a shot he had previously played so well, off the seamer's next delivery low to Sibley at short cover.

It was the end of a more than six-and-a-half hour innings of 250 balls that included 12 fours and a six, with Rahul also sharing an excellent first-wicket partnership of 126 with Rohit Sharma.

His innings followed Rahul's 84 in the rain-marred drawn first Test of this five-match in Nottingham last week, where he was only selected after Mayank Agarwal was hit on the head while batting in the nets at Trent Bridge

Meanwhile Robinson, in just his third Test, now had a second prize wicket in this innings after removing India captain Virat Kohli for 42 with the new ball late Thursday.

India's 278-4 soon became 282-5 when Ajinkya Rahane, looking a shadow of the batsman who scored a Test hundred at Lord's in 2014, fell for his overnight one when edging Anderson to England captain Joe Root at first slip.

Rishabh Pant, renowned as an attacking batsman, signalled his intentions by driving his second ball, from Robinson, down the ground for four.

Pant had fit five boundaries in his 37, including five fours, when he cut at a wide ball from fast bowler Mark Wood and was caught behind by opposing wicketkeeper Jos Buttler.

India's 331-6 then became 336-7 when Mohammed Shami fell for a duck after tamely chipping off-spinner Moeen Ali to midwicket.

Ishant, replacing the injured Shardul Thakur in the only change to India's XI, frustrated England for an hour, although he was dropped down the legside by Buttler, with Hameed missing a run-out chance next ball.

Anderson took matters into his own hands by having Ishant lbw for eight before the swing specialist had Jasprit Bumrah caught behind for a duck to complete his 31st five-wicket haul in Tests and seventh at Lord's.

It was a fine effort given Anderson had come into the game nursing a thigh problem, with England already without Stuart Broad after a pre-match calf injury that meant his longstanding new-ball partner was now out of the rest of this five-Test series.

The 39-year-old Anderson now has 626 Test wickets, with only two retired spinners in Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan (800 wickets) and Australia's Shane Warne (708) ahead of him in the all-time list.

Collected from "prothomalo"