Ishant wreaks havoc as England reduced to 72/5 at lunch
Ishant Sharma spread panic in English ranks with three wickets off just 16 deliveries as Indian bowlers put up an inspired performance during the morning session on the fourth day of the first cricket Test being played at the Lord's.
Ishant blew away the top-order as England were reduced to 72 for five in the pre-lunch session but a handy first innings lead of 188 meant that the overall lead swelled to 260.
The highest ever successful chase recorded at Lord's is by West Indies way back in 1984 when they chased down the target of 344 runs based on Gordon Greenidge's epic 214.
Indians bowled 26 overs in the morning session and conceded only 67 runs while accounting for five England wickets.
The last four England wickets fell within a space of 32 balls for the addition of only eight runs.
Ishant dismissed Kevin Pitersen (1), Ian Bell (0) and Jonathan Trott (22) in two spells of hostile fast bowling for the morning figures of 11-5-14-3.
Indeed, his productive spell had sizzling figures of 5-3-4-3.
Indeed England lost four of their prime batsmen in a matter of 32 balls as Harbhajan Singh had accounted for England skipper Andrew Strauss (32) in the over before Sharma began his mayhem.
Ironically, both Ishant and Harbhajan, presently the toast of the Indian team, had sent down 32 and 35 wicketless overs conceding 128 and 152 runs respectively in England's first innings.
Scoreboard
England 1st Innings 474-8 dec (K Pietersen 202 no, M Prior 71, J Trott 70; Praveen Kumar 5-106)
India 1st Innings 286 (R Dravid 103 no; S Broad 4-37, C Tremlett 3-80)
England 2nd Innings (overnight: 5-0)
A. Strauss lbw b Harbhajan 32
A. Cook c Dhoni b Kumar 1
J. Trott b Sharma 22
K. Pietersen c Dhoni b Sharma 1
I. Bell c Dhoni b Sharma 0
E. Morgan not out 5
M. Prior not out 5
Extras (b3, lb1, w2) 6
Total (5 wkts, 31 overs, 143 mins) 72
To bat: S Broad, G Swann, C Tremlett, J Anderson
Bowling: Kumar 12-1-39-1 (1w); Sharma 13-6-15-3 (1w); Harbhajan 6-0-14-1;
India: Abhinav Mukund, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Venkatsai Laxman, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt/wkt), Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma
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