England lose early wickets chasing 319

England made a stuttering start to their chase for 319 runs for victory on Sunday’s fourth day of the second test at Lord’s, ending the day at 105 runs for the loss of four wickets, including first innings hero Gary Ballance.

The English lost Sam Robson early as they reached 18 for one in a tough period before tea. Robson fell lbw to Ravindra Jadeja for only seven runs. Though Alastair Cook and Gary Ballance managed a 58-run partnership, three wickets in three consecutive overs left the hosts facing an uphill task with the score at four for 72. England will need to record their second highest successful run chase and the second-highest fourth innings chase by any team at Lord’s to go 1-0 up in the five-test series.

England skipper Cook’s dreadful run of form continued as he was dismissed for 22. The left-handed opener fell in all-too familiar fashion when he pushed at a ball outside off stump from seamer Ishant Sharma and was caught behind for the second time. Ian Bell fell to a beautiful line of attack from Ishant Sharma, arguably the best bowler of the evening.

The ball hurried on to Bell, a line Sharma persisted with, and the Englishman played slightly inside it as the ball went past the outside of his bat and crashed into off stump. England need a further 214 runs to claim their first test win in 10 matches. India, boosted by a thrilling 99-run partnership between Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar for the eighth wicket, were dismissed in their second innings for 342.

Jadeja, frequently booed by an exuberant Lord’s crowd over a clash with England paceman James Anderson during the drawn first match at Trent Bridge, brought up his maiden test half-century off 42 balls. When he fell for 68, caught by Cook off Ben Stokes, he had put on 99 runs with Kumar from 100 balls, having hit nine fours to all corners of the ground as England’s attack failed to stem the flow of runs on a green pitch.

Kumar played the supporting role, passing 50 for the third time in four innings this series when he hit Stokes back over his head, having taken career best bowling figures of 6-82 in England’s first innings. He was the last to fall, reaching 52 off 71 balls.

Earlier opener Murali Vijay fell five runs short of a well-deserved century, caught by Matt Prior off Anderson shortly after the new ball was taken after spending over six hours in the middle—India’s only real anchor on a tough Lord’s pitch. He was one of three wickets to fall in the morning session, with an unusually circumspect Mahendra Singh Dhoni caught off Liam Plunkett for 19 and Stuart Binny (0) taken by Cook off Moeen Ali.