Ishant Sharma Creates ‘Chin Music’ at Lord’s in 2014

On 21st July in 2014, Ishant Sharma ended India’s 28-year wait for a victory at Lord’s with an aggressive spell of pace bowling. His 7/74 in the second innings of the second Test match of the series between India and England was a sight to behold.

Sharma has been India’s pace spearhead in the longest format of the game for a couple of years now. He had a memorable first outing down under in 2008 when he made Ricky Ponting dance to his tunes in a superb bowling spell. He swung the ball both ways and troubled Ponting continuously, bowling at a nagging line and length. However, he has been quite inconsistent with his performances over the years and his position in the Indian side has often been a topic of discussion.

A fiery spell of bowling

However, his spell of 7/74 at Lord’s, a couple of years back, silenced the critics and he didn’t have to look back after that in the longest format of the game. In typically overcast conditions at Lord’s, the game seemed to be heading towards a draw on the final day of the Test match. However, a fiery spell from Ishant Sharma extended England’s win-less drought to 10 Tests. India had given England a Target of 319 runs to chase and England collapsed for 223 all out on the final day.

The match was equally competitive as England posted 319 runs in reply to India’s first innings total of 295. England were ahead in the match for most of the time. But Ravindra Jadeja (68) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar‘s (52) superb rearguard action with the bat helped India to post a second innings total of 342 runs, thus leaving England to chase down a total of 319 runs. Ishant went wicketless in the first innings but turned the tides with a seven-wicket haul in the second innings. Five of his seven wickets were victims of short pitched deliveries.

It all started with two superb deliveries to Ian Bell and Alastair Cook. Bell missed an incoming delivery only to see the stumps shattered behind him. Cook was the next to go as he edged an out-swinging delivery to be caught behind by the Indian skipper MS Dhoni. Root and Ali steadied the English ship with a partnership of 101 runs for the fifth wicket. However, what followed next was a series of careless pull shots from the English batsmen that resulted in the fall of six wickets in a space of just 49 runs.

‘The Chin-Music Episode’

Video courtesy of Youtube

Moeen Ali was the first to face the ‘Chin Music’ as a short pitched delivery from Ishant Sharma ricocheted off his gloves straight into the hands of Pujara at short leg. Matt Prior was the next to go, playing a careless pull shot to deep mid-wicket. Ben Stokes followed in a similar fashion as that of Ali and Root (66) followed next with another careless pull. Broad was Ishant’s last wicket as he edged a Short pitched delivery down the leg-side to Dhoni’s gloves.

England went into self-destruct mode after being ahead for most of the match. With the ninth wicket down, India were just one step away from creating history at Lord’s. The long wait of 28 years finally came to an end for India when James Anderson was run out off Ravindra Jadeja’s throw. It was a moment to savour for the Indian team and the fans. Ishant Sharma was also adjudged the ‘Man of the Match’ for his second innings efforts.

“Main Photo:”