Washington Sundar’s two timely strikes pegged England back in the afternoon session, leaving them at 175 for six at tea on day four of the second Test here on Sunday.

Joe Root (40 off 96 balls) and Ben Stokes (27 batting off 83) applied themselves on a deteriorating pitch to frustrate India with a 67-run stand before Washington got the job done by removing the former and the dangerous Jamie Smith (8 off 14).

The Indian spinners finally got into the game with Ravindra Jadeja and Washington getting help from the surface. Anything over 250 would be a competitive target on this pitch.

After surviving a close DRS call for a leg before wicket off Mohammed Siraj, Root resorted to sweeping Washington but the ball crashed onto his exposed stumps.

Smith departed soon after, paying the price for playing down the wrong line and losing his off-stump. The ball kept a tad low, contributing to the dismissal.

A total of 77 runs were scored in the session with the loss of two wickets.

In the first two hours of play, Siraj made the ball talk on a crumbling pitch, reducing England to 98 for four at lunch.

After a drama filled last over on day three, the intensity remained high on the field with not much to separate both teams at the start of day four.

Siraj, who thrives on a heated battle with the opposition batters, was fired up after removing Ben Duckett from the Pavillion End. He changed his line a shade to target the stumps and was rewarded with another wicket of Ollie Pope.

With the bowlers getting more assistance from Nursery End, Siraj bowled his heart out from down the hill. His spell of seven overs got him two wickets for just 11 runs.

Jasprit Bumrah opened the bowling alongside Siraj and troubled Zak Crawley after the latter survived his fiery one over burst on Saturday.

The odd ball was jumping from length at the Nursery End, Bumrah got one to take off that hit Crawley’s bat handle, adding to the excitement at a packed Lord’s.

Shubman Gill replaced Bumrah with Nitish Reddy and, following his two-wicket over in the first innings, the batting all-rounder got rid of Crawley for the second time in the match.

With wicket-keeper backing up, Reddy pitched one up and Crawley went for the drive only to be pouched at gully by Yashasvi Jaiswal, who was finally able to hold on to a catch.

With the ball doing enough from both ends, Harry Brook thought (23 off 19) attack was the best form of defense, picking Akash Deep for two ramp shots before unleashing a six over mid-off.

However, Akash kept attacking the stumps in the following over and was rewarded when Brook missed a sweep for his middle stump to be shattered, leaving England at 87 for four.

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