England v India, 2nd Test: Defining moments of India's victory at Lord's

There were many heroes in yesterdaysfamous win at Lords, with almost everyone contributing to end Indias win-less streak abroad. Here are some moments in the course of the match thatplayed a vital role in getting India past the finish line. These players and their approach in the match was what enabledIndiawin their first encounter at Lords in 28 years.Hopefully, this would be the start of the new era of Indian cricket,and these group of individuals can script a turnaround for the future.

#1 Ajinkya Rahanes century

Having started patiently, leaving balls outside the off-stump, Ajinkya Rahane played an amazing innings on a green top on the 1st day of the match to rescue the visitors from being knocked over for less than 200 runs. Later on in the innings, he batted brilliantly with the tailenders, finding an able partner in the ever-impressive Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Once the new ball was taken, the 26-year-old completely annihilated Stuart Broad and James Anderson.

#2 Cheteshwar Pujaras patient vigil

England had won a very important toss and were threatening to blow India away on the 1st day of the match, but Pujara deflated the home attack on a pitch that was doing more than a bit. A knock of 28 might not seem huge, but he stayed on the wicket for around 3 hours to fight whatever demons there were in the pitch, thereby nullifying the new ball. Rahane also credited the knocks of Murali Vijay and Pujara for laying the platform for his innings later in the day.

#3 Bhuvneshwar Kumar\'s spell

Bhuvneshwar Kumar ripped through the England top order to put India in a great position to dominate the match. He took out the top 3 England batsmen in his first spell and came later on in the game to provide the crucial breakthroughs. The 23-year-old bowled way better than the England bowlers, more so considering the wicket wasn’t getting any better to the pacers as the match progressed, to bag a 6-wicket haul in the first innings.

England bowlers had a pitch that was doing everything for them but wasted it by bowling short and wide, whereas the Uttar Pradesh bowler hit the right line and length to stifle the opposition.

#4 The grit of Murali Vijay

Although the Tamil Nadu player gave India a good start in 1st innings, he could not make it a big one; that did not deter Vijay from showing grit and patience – qualities that have defined his recent Test outings – in his knock of 95 in the 2nd innings. The 30-year-old curbed his natural instinct and kept leaving balls to play an anchor role when India was suffering a mini-batting collapse at the other end.

At the end, the same instinct to play outside the off-stump got the better of him as he fell 5 short of getting his name on the honours board. This innings might be the best knock of his brief international career despite him not reaching the three-figure mark.

#5 Ravindra Jadejas counter-attack

Ravindra Jadeja was the talk of the town – as he always is – before the start of the Test match, though, this time it was for wrong reasons; the 25-year-old, however, made the opportunity count as he played one of the most important knocks of his career in the 2nd innings. He played a swashbuckling innings in which he wielded the bat like a sword, before and after reaching his maiden half-century.

His aggressive counter-attack, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar at the othe end, changed the match for India. Their partnership was the difference between a target of 250 and 319.

#6 Chin music from Ishant Sharma

Ishant has bored the brunt of a lot of criticism fromexpertsalong with excessive ridicule from the fans due to his inability to consistently perform at the highest level. Of late, though, the lankypacerhas taken 6 wickets or more in an innings in 3 of the last 4 longer format gameshe has played. At Lords, he bounced out the English batsmen on the last day; if someone had told me that an Indian seamer would do that, even days ago,itwould have been hard to believe.

After lunch, it seemed that MS Dhoni and Ishant had come out with a plan to only bowl short which in the end worked for the team, althoughthe ploywas dangerous and seemed to be backfiring until Matt Prior got out. It was more a case of stupidity and lack of determination on the part of the English players than great tactics from India that lead to the collapse.

But, with due credit to Ishant,his spell, whichwas fast and hostile, made all the difference and alsogot him the Man-of-the-Match award, deservingly so.