Jofra Archer gave Rishabh Pant a send-off in another heated moment during England’s thrilling 22-run victory over India at Lord’s.
The first two Tests were played in relatively good spirits but the teams clashed throughout the third match.
India were unhappy with England openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett for timewasting at the end of day three and Mohammed Siraj gave Duckett a fiery send-off the following morning.
Siraj has since been fined 15% of his match fee and given one demerit point for the send-off.
Resuming on 58-4 at the start of day five, India needed 135 more runs to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series but ended up 22 runs short.
Archer, playing his first Test in more than four years, knocking over the dangerous Pant at the start of the day before delivering some verbals to the India wicketkeeper.
Asked about England’s approach in the field, Archer told Sky Sports: ‘It was collective effort. We all came together as a group yesterday and said we’re a bit too nice.
‘When we go other places, some teams aren’t as nice to us as we are to them. We tried to shift it.’
On his send-off to Pant, Archer added: ‘It wasn’t a proud moment but I just told him to “charge that”.
‘He came down the track and hit me for four a bit earlier and that p***** me off a little bit. When the ball nipped down the slope, I was so grateful for that.’
England took three more wickets in the morning session – Archer, Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes with the scalps – to leave India 112-8 at lunch, still 81 runs short of victory.
But Ravindra Jadeja, who finished unbeaten on 61, put on 35 with Jasprit Bumrah, who defied his poor batting statistics to survive 54 balls.
Siraj kept Jadeja company for a further 13 overs before a solid enough block off the bowling of Shoaib Bashir spun back from the crease line and trickled into the stumps, dislodging one bail.
The rare dismissal sparked wild celebrations from England and left Siraj and Jadeja on their haunches before they were consoled by several England players.
‘This will be a tough one for India to take,’ ex-England captain Nasser Hussain said.
‘If we had those pie charts up about who has won sessions in this series, they have won so many sessions. They have played so much good cricket.
Jofra Archer on his long-awaited return to Test cricket
‘The first celebration was a bit emotional, yeah. It has been a long journey and I can’t tell you about the amount of keyboard warriors there have been over the past three years or so.
‘I was going to try and not to be [too excited] but as soon as the catch was taken, that just went out of the window, the joy and the crowd.
‘They gave me a huge lift. Every moment, it’s made all the hard work and the rehab worth it.’
‘But they are 2-1 down because of the key moments – little collapses, dropped catches, Pant’s run out here at Lord’s.
‘India need a break. If we had back-to-back Test matches, this would he hard for them.’
Despite falling to a narrow defeat, India captain Shubman Gill insisted he was ‘so proud’ of his team.
‘This is as close as a Test match can get,’ he said. ‘It comes down to the last session, the last wicket, so I am tremendously proud.
‘I was confident this morning but we weren’t able to have partnerships and England played better than us. I think the last hour last night we could have applied ourselves better.
‘The series scorecard doesn’t really reflect things. We have played some good cricket and it is going to be exciting from now on.’
The third Test of this thrilling five-match series starts a week on Wednesday at Manchester’s Old Trafford.
Bashir looks set to miss that match and the series finale after injuring his finger at Lord’s, while Pant is an injury doubt with a similar issue.