Indian pacers reduce England to 98 for four at lunch

London: India pacer Mohammed Siraj made the ball talk on a deteriorating pitch, reducing England to 98 for four at lunch on day four of the third Test here on Sunday.

England captain Ben Stokes (2 batting off 13 balls) and Joe Root (17 batting off 40) were in the middle at the break.

After a drama filled last over on day three, the intensity remained high on the field with not much to separate both teams at the start of day four. Considering the deteriorating nature of the surface, a target in the range of 250-300 would be a big challenge for the team batting last.

Siraj, who thrives on a heated battle with the opposition batters, was fired up after removing Ben Duckett from the Pavillion End.

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He changed his line a shade to target the stumps and was rewarded with another wicket Ollie Pope.

With the bowlers getting more assistance from Nursery End, Siraj bowled his heart out from down the hill. His spell of seven overs got him two wickets for just 11 runs.

Bumrah opened the bowling alongside Siraj and troubled Zak Crawley once again after the latter survived his fiery one over burst on Saturday.

The odd ball was jumping from length at the Nursery End, and Bumrah got one to take off that hit Crawley’s bat handle, adding to the excitement at a packed Lord’s.

Shubman Gill replaced Bumrah with Nitish Reddy and, following his two-wicket over in the first innings, the batting all-rounder got rid of Crawley for the second time in the match.

With wicket-keeper backing up, Reddy pitched one up and Crawley went for the drive only to be pouched at gully by Yashasvi Jaiswal, who was finally able to hold on to a catch.

With the ball doing enough from both ends, Harry Brook thought (23 off 19) attack was the best form of defense, picking Akash Deep for two ramp shots before unleashing a six over mid-off.

However, Akash kept attacking the stumps in the following over and was rewarded when Brook missed a sweep for his middle stump to be shattered, leaving England at 87 for four.

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