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Ali Martin’s day two report
The over rate was pathetic and the heat oppressive yet every spectator in Lord’s was transfixed. Nothing stirs the senses quite like high-quality pace bowling and so it proved here, be it the latest five-wicket display of Jasprit Bumrah’s mastery in the morning or Jofra Archer striking third ball on his comeback.
Archer first, and a moment that will live long in the memory for both the player and his supporters in the stands. As India closed on 145 for three in reply to 387 all out, his figures read a tidy one for 22 from 10 overs. And yet the numbers told only part of the story, with that solitary wicket, one that stopped everyone in their tracks and triggered an eruption of noise around NW8, unquestionably the moment of the day.
Preamble
Michael Atherton – former England captain, Sky commentator, cricket correspondent of Rival Newspaper – has a brilliant analogy to describe the rhythm of a four- or five-match Test series. “A lengthy Test series can be likened to an arm wrestle,” he tweeted in 2021. “You have a struggle for a short while but it often ends with one team completely flattened.”
On the morning of Saturday 12 July 2025, England and India were at the peak of that struggle: 1-1 in the series, with a persuasive case for either team being slightly ahead in the third Test. At the end of an unyielding second day’s play, the memory of which will surely make Jofra Archer smile for the rest of his natural-born days, India were 145 for 3 in reply to England’s 387.
The third day of a Test is known as moving day (unless Team B are 94 for 8 in reply to Team A’s 672 for 2 declared, in which case there’s nothing much to move). Today isn’t any old moving day. It’s the midpoint of a heavyweight contest: the third day of the third Test in a five-Test series that is level at 1-1. Moving day in the series, never mind the Test.
Chances are that, by 6.30pm, when 74 more overs have been bowled, one team will have an indisputable advantage. But right now, a compelling Test series could not be more perfectly poised.
