England coach Brendon McCullum was seen signalling his team to turn up the chat on-field as they induced a collapse during an intense day five of the Lord's Test.
India started day five at 58-4, chasing 193. Jofra Archer knocked over Rishabh Pant's stumps with a ripper in the fourth over of the day to set off an early collapse. KL Rahul was the second man to go, lbw off a Ben Stokes in-ducker that trapped him in front.
At the fall of Rahul's wicket, the sixth of the innings, India promoted Washington Sundar over Nitish Kumar Reddy, sending the left-hander in at No.8. During the gap between Rahul walking off and Sundar coming out to bat, cameras spotted McCullum seeming to signal to the England players to increase the level of sledging, presumably to get under Sundar's skin.
The ploy worked, as Sundar lasted just four balls at the crease, falling to a superb caught-and-bowled by Archer for a duck. It's hard to pinpoint exactly how much of a contribution the sledging made to the dismissal, but it wasn't a one-off incident targeting Sundar. Reddy, the next batter in, continued to face heat from the England players, with Harry Brook – his ex-IPL teammate at Sunrisers Hyderabad – heard reminding him that this wasn't the IPL.
Ravindra Jadeja was then involved in an incident with Brydon Carse in the second session. Jadeja ran into Carse while attempting to take two runs, after which the two approached each other in what could have turned into a heated argument before Stokes got in between to separate them.
Words have been exchanged quite frequently over the course of the Lord's Test, particularly since the end of day three which saw Shubman Gill and the India team incensed at Zak Crawley for his perceived time-wasting tactics.
Also read: Is Mohammed Siraj at risk of ban for Ben Duckett send-off and shoulder barge?
As India tried to replicate the same towards the end of day four to ensure that they minimise the number of overs they had to face, England players were seen clapping and sledging at the batters, just as India had done the previous day.
The general reaction to the increased needle in the Lord's Test has been that of acceptance. "All that is allowed on the field of play. You want all that. You can't just have 'Good morning', 'Good evening', 'Go home'. Little bit of argy-bargy is okay in the middle as long as you don't cross the line," Ravi Shastri said at the end of day three.
Jonathan Trott, however, wasn't impressed with Gill's actions late on day three, and Mohammed Siraj has been fined 15 per cent of his match-fee for giving a send-off to Ben Duckett on day four.
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