After a pulsating Day 4 at Lord’s, England batting coach Marcus Trescothick lauded the home crowd’s energy for spurring the bowlers to rip through India’s top order and leave the visitors reeling at 58/4 while chasing 193 runs for a series lead. Trescothick also revealed that England had hoped to set a target of 250+, but unpredictable bounce made it tough to judge a good score.
“I think we always wanted 250-plus, of course we did. But I think after the first innings it was really hard to judge what a good score was going to be because there was definitely more variation in bounce this morning than we had seen at any time in the game really,” said Trescothick.
“Again, we would have loved to have had more runs than what we did but I still feel like we have got a decent score on the board with something to really push towards tomorrow… We will look forward to what is going to happen tomorrow,” he added.
He emphasized that the first hour of Day 5 will be crucial to determining the match’s outcome:
“It will revolve around the first hour of the day tomorrow, how positive India can be, how dominant we can be with the ball and how many early wickets we can get.”
The final session saw a dramatic swing in England’s favor, with Brydon Carse and Ben Stokes dismantling India’s top order under the fading London light.
“That last hour or half an hour, the support and the energy around the ground made it amazing, really, didn’t it? Everybody was invested into it… Hopefully, we can get a bit more of that tomorrow and we can push forward to winning the game,” Trescothick said.
“The buzz around the ground at the end really gave the boys the lift that they needed. A couple of late wickets in the day give them that hope that we are bang on the money.”
Shoaib Bashir, who was injured on Day 3, is reportedly ready to bowl if needed on the final day.
Trescothick also praised KL Rahul’s classical Test match approach, calling him one of India’s most dangerous players in the series:
“KL’s been classical old-school style of Test cricket, isn’t he? He has left the ball really well, judgment of the length is good, looked to bat for a long period of time and he has done it well.”
“Obviously 100 in the first innings (for KL Rahul), hopefully you know we can get him out early and we can start getting into the rest of the tail as they come along… He’s been pretty dominant in a few of the games that he has played.”
Day 4 Summary:
England resumed Day 4 at 175/6, with Ben Stokes (33) and Chris Woakes (10) adding just 17 more runs before Washington Sundar cleaned up the tail with a brilliant spell, finishing with 4/22. Jasprit Bumrah (2/38) and Mohammed Siraj (2/31) also chipped in as England were bowled out for 192 in 62 overs, setting India a target of 193.
India’s chase began in shambles as Jofra Archer removed Yashasvi Jaiswal for a duck. KL Rahul looked fluent again, but wickets fell around him. Brydon Carse trapped Karun Nair (14) and Shubman Gill (6) lbw, and just before stumps, skipper Ben Stokes dismissed nightwatchman Akash for 1, ending the day with India on 58/4 and KL unbeaten on *33.
Tensions also flared late in the day as Stokes clapped and exchanged words with KL Rahul, apparently referencing sledging from the Indian side the previous day.
With 135 runs needed and six wickets in hand, India will depend heavily on Rahul and the middle-lower order, including Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, and Washington Sundar, to script a miracle on the final day.