A fiery exchange in the final over of the day 3 had a lot of dramatic visuals, with India’s captain Shubman Gill in the thick of it. Annoyed by England opener Zak Crawley’s time-wasting tactics that ensured India just got in one over as opposed to two that they would have hoped, Gill ran from the slips, hurled verbals at Crawley and Ben Duckett, pointed fingers, and mock-clapped at Crawley. The England openers also stood their ground, and gave it all back.
On air at Sky Sports, former England captain Mike Atherton said he ‘loved watching’ it.
“There was chit-chat but I didn’t mind that. It was a red-blooded contest and you have to give players a bit of leeway. I loved watching it and thought it was a fantastic end to a nip-and-tuck day. Brilliant drama, great theatre.”
His fellow commentator, another captain Nasser Hussain, too had a bit of the same reaction. “Box-office stuff at Lord’s. A hot day got a little bit heated towards the end,” was his take.
India’s Dinesh Karthik would say that this was exactly what one wanted to see : “Exactly what you want to see. The aggression, the passion, both teams wanting to win real bad and going hard at each other.”
Another former England captain Alastair Cook said a 5-match series usually throws up such scenes.
“Everyone has been so friendly, but this always happens in a series of five matches,” he said on BBC Radio. “There’s little moments after playing against each other so many times. Duckett was like a dachshund: all those big dogs and he was the one squaring up to [Mohammed] Siraj.”
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Michael Vaughan, another former captain, too took a similar line of thinking.
“”It’s as good a piece of time-wasting I’ve ever seen,”Vaughan said on BBC Radio. “India can’t complain because yesterday Gill was down with the 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.”
