Centurion KL Rahul admitted that he could relate to the prickly tactics displayed by his England opening counterparts, Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, as they limited India to only over with the Dukes at Lord’s on day three. After the first-innings scores dramatically ended level on 387, only for the ninth time in all of Test history, India had six minutes to try and dent the hosts as Jasprit Bumrah picked up the new ball.
However, Crawley was firm in his plan to try and limit India’s push to only six balls as he came up with some quirky stoppages, which eventually ended up irking the Indians, with a particularly animated Shubman Gill leading an expletive-laden tirade. An iffy Crawley then got away after pulling off one last trick. After chirping and chatter aplenty, Crawley called out for the physio after the penultimate ball from a sprightly Bumrah appeared to hit him on the gloves, leaving Gill fuming.
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‘Gill fired up’
“Yeah, I mean, I have seen him (Shubman Gill) fired up, but obviously, we wanted to bowl 2 overs. There were 6 minutes left. Obviously, 2 overs is a no-brainer that any team will bowl,” said Rahul in the press conference.
“But, yeah, it’s a bit of theatrics at the end. And, yeah, we were all pumped up either way because we know how difficult it is for a batter to come into bat for 2 overs when you’ve been in the field all day. We’re hoping we could get a wicket there and a wicket at the end of the day’s play would have been perfect for us,” said Rahul.
WATCH THE FULL INDIA VS ENGLAND DAY 3 LAST OVER DRAMA AT LORD’S
Always annoying when you can’t get another over in before close 🙄 pic.twitter.com/3Goknoe2n5
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 12, 2025
Former players, experts react to last-over drama
“It’s as good a piece of time-wasting as I’ve ever seen,” former England captain Michael Vaughan said on the Test Match Special podcast as he highlighted how Gill had taken away playing time on the field the previous day when nursing an injury. “India can’t complain because yesterday Gill was down with a hamstring strain – Rahul was off the field and wouldn’t have been able to open the batting. Neither team can complain, but what great drama and what a great day. We’re in for a fourth and fifth day that will be fantastic.”
I’ve been moaning about slow play so feels strange to me that my favourite over of the series, the final one of the day, lasted 7 minutes 😂
— Stuart Broad (@StuartBroad8) July 12, 2025
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“I’ve been moaning about slow play so feels strange to me that my favourite over of the series, the final one of the day, lasted 7 minutes,” wrote former England seamer Stuart Broad on X.
