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Lord's, London – Evening Shadows and Iron Will
The light had begun to mellow at Lord's — that honeyed, late-summer glow which makes even the grass seem holy. Shadows lengthened across the pitch, stretching from the pavilion toward the Nursery End. A murmur hung in the air — neither silence nor cheer, just that taut hum that Test cricket alone can summon.
The scoreboard read: New Zealand 188 for 1.
Devon Conway stood on 95. Kane Williamson, stoic and still finding his touch, watched from the other end. The Indian fielders fanned out with quiet energy — no restlessness, no slouch. They knew something was coming.
And so did Aarav Pathak.
At the top of his mark, he held the ball lightly — the new Dukes glistening under the fading gold. He could feel the grain, the seam biting into his fingers like truth itself. Kohli crouched at mid-off, eyes locked on his bowler.
"Let's get one here, Aarav. One perfect ball," Kohli called, voice sharp as a blade.
From the commentary box, Michael Atherton leaned closer to his mic.
"It's been absorbing, hasn't it? Every ball feels like it matters. You sense this game has a heartbeat."
Beside him, Sunil Gavaskar chuckled softly.
"And Pathak again — every time Kohli needs a moment, he turns to the young man. There's something special about him."
Aarav ran in — smooth, rhythmic, like a river tightening before it strikes the rocks. First delivery of the session, pitched up and seaming away — Conway watched, left alone. Second ball — a touch shorter, kissed the seam, nipped back. Conway adjusted late.
The third one.
Pitched just outside off, fuller, tempting. Conway leaned forward, feet half-committed. The ball curved, bit, and straightened. A faint edge, a gasp, and then — Pant flew.
A flash of blue and white. Gloves outstretched. A heartbeat later, the ball thudded into leather.
Pant roared. Aarav turned — no appeal this time, just belief. Kohli leapt in front of slips, eyes blazing.
Conway out for 95.
The crowd erupted, half in shock, half in admiration. Even the neutrals rose to applaud the left-hander as he walked off, bat raised to the Lord's crowd, disappointment hidden under grace.
Gavaskar's voice rose with emotion.
"He's done it again! Aarav Pathak — the golden arm!"
Simon Doull, a Kiwi at heart, sighed but smiled.
"That's massive for India. Just when New Zealand were settling, Pathak finds a way."
Aarav clenched his fist, looked up — not at the crowd, not at the cameras, but at the sky above the Members Pavilion. and then a scream like lion, his aggression which was pent up in him came out all together.
New Zealand 188/2.
Ross Taylor walked in, jaw tight, eyes clear. A veteran of a thousand battles, he was not about to yield to a young firebrand. Williamson nodded briefly at him — nothing spoken, just trust passed like a secret.
Kohli switched gears, bringing Jadeja and Ashwin in tandem. The spinners began their slow burn. Each delivery stirred the air differently — some looping high, some flattening into skids.
Aarav moved to short midwicket, crouching low, always alert. His gaze never left Williamson. The Kiwi captain was a study in calm defiance — front foot forward, soft hands, eyes watching everything.
Every block drew murmurs. Every single earned applause. Every grunt from Pant behind the stumps echoed into the stands.
The rhythm of the game slowed, but the tension thickened.
Taylor began to drive — one ball from Ashwin floated too full, and he leaned into it, sending it scything through cover. The ball raced across the evening outfield, shimmering under gold light.
Atherton:
"They're absorbing the pressure beautifully. This is Test cricket of the highest order."
The crowd clapped appreciatively, the applause blending with the low thud of leather on willow. Williamson rotated strike. Taylor found balance.
Still, Kohli didn't blink. He walked to Aarav during the drinks break.
"Rest your shoulders, champ," Kohli said, eyes gleaming. "We go hard again in the last ten. New ball, your spell."
Aarav smiled faintly, breath steadying.
"Let's break them before stumps, skipper."
When the umpires called for the new ball, a collective ripple ran through the field. Kohli tossed it to Bumrah. Then turned and handed the second to Aarav. (means 1st over Bumrah and second to Aarav).
Lords under evening lights — half the ground dipped in gold, half under shadow. The faint mist over the stands, the hum of anticipation — it all framed a moment that felt sacred.
New Zealand 243/2. Williamson on 30. Taylor on 22.
Aarav began from the Pavilion End.
The first ball whistled past Williamson's outside edge — a perfect seam position, gliding like a whisper. Pant slapped his gloves, Kohli clapped in rhythm.
Next ball — fuller, straighter. Williamson played with soft hands.
Gavaskar:
"Aarav's rhythm tonight — smooth as poetry. His control of the seam, you can watch this all day."
Every over was its own story. Bumrah beat Taylor twice, once with pace, once with swing. Aarav built pressure from the other end — two LBW appeals denied, but close enough to make hearts jump.
The Lord's crowd — quiet at times, then rising suddenly — clapped each maiden over, appreciating the art unfolding before them.
Atherton:
"He's almost hypnotic — pace, line, relentlessness. The future of Indian fast bowling."
Aarav's shirt was drenched, hair damp against his forehead. He wiped his face, turned, and ran in again. Williamson, the picture of control, punched one back past him. Aarav bent low, flicked the ball to the stumps — just missing.
The applause grew.
Taylor countered with aggression, whipping one off his pads to midwicket, crisp and certain. The scoreboard ticked on — 260, 265, 270.
Kohli brought the slips closer, his voice echoing through the dusk. "Come on boys, every ball!"
Gavaskar:
"This is vintage Kohli — attack till the end. He knows a single wicket here could swing tomorrow."
Aarav took the final over of the day.
Williamson on strike.
First ball — shapes away. Beaten.Second — inswinger, hits pad, shout denied.Third — straight drive. Aarav dives, stops it cleanly, throws it back in one motion.Fourth — good length, defended solidly.Fifth — bouncer. Williamson ducks, smiles faintly.Sixth — a perfect seamer, left alone.
Kohli claps, walking toward his bowler as the umpires lift the bails.
The crowd stands — not roaring, not screaming, but applauding. That slow, steady applause reserved for great Test cricket.
The players walk off. The light has dimmed; the scoreboard glows faintly. 277 for 2. Williamson unbeaten on 48, Taylor on 48.
Kohli places a hand on Aarav's shoulder.
As they walk through the archway toward the dressing room, Aarav glances back at the pitch. The mist over the turf glows silver now, almost ethereal.
From the stands, faint chants echo:
"Aarav! Aarav! Aarav!"
The click of photographers, the clang of stumps being lifted, the scoreboard humming quietly as the numbers fade.
Atherton's voice rises over the closing scene:
"A day that tested patience and pride — and as the sun dips at Lord's, both teams have answered the call."
Doull:
"New Zealand will sleep better tonight, but they know one thing — India aren't going anywhere."
The camera pans to the two teams leaving the field — India in a tight huddle, Kohli clapping them off. Williamson and Taylor walk back together, bats resting on shoulders, quiet and resolute.
The scoreboard lingers in the frame:
New Zealand 277/2 (Williamson 48, Taylor 48) — Lead by 108 runs**
And as the scene fades, the last line floats softly — like a prayer before dawn:
"Tomorrow will decide who dreams longer — and who dares harder."
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Day 5 – Session 1
The final morning at Lord's dawned under a heavy sky.
By nine-thirty, the stands began to fill — coffee cups in one hand, raincoats in the other. Indian tricolours rippled in the Grand Stand, a sea of blue scattered against the dark jackets of English morning. Kiwi flags fluttered near the Media Centre, quiet and steady, like the men they represented.
The scoreboard blinked to life:New Zealand 277/2 — Lead 108.
A hush.Then the Lord's bell rang.
The umpires emerged, coats buttoned, followed by Kohli's men — crisp in white, faces with purpose.Aarav Pathak jogged alongside Bumrah, the new ball in his right hand, the faint mist clinging to his sleeves. His breath steamed in the chill air as he ran his thumb along the seam — perfect, hard, proud.
He paused at the top of his mark, the noise around him fading to a hum. The ground, the crowd, the cold — they disappeared. Only the 22 yards remained.
Williamson tapped his bat twice. Taylor adjusted his gloves.
Kohli clapped at mid-off.
"Let's go boys! Pressure from ball one!"
First Over from Bumrah, a maiden over from him.
Aarav with the ball. He hurled it down, seam upright, pitching just short of a good length. The ball zipped off the surface, kissed the air — Williamson swayed away, just. The crowd gasped, half expecting an edge.
Dinesh Karthik, his voice bubbling through commentary:
"The 5th day, new morning — and there's something in the air today. Every single run, every single ball could define a career."
Second ball — fuller, late movement in. Williamson lunged, the edge flirting, teasing, denying. Pant dived but it fell short.
Nasser Hussain:
"He's bowling like he's done this all his life at Lord's. You can't coach that control."
Third ball — a jaffa. Straightened, beat the outside edge. Kohli punched his palm in disbelief. Aarav smiled, thin and dangerous.
Next over, Bumrah joined in — angles, speed, hostility. Taylor wore one on the thigh pad; the ball thudded, the sound echoing like a drumbeat.
Kohli shouted, voice slicing the tension.
"Stay there! Keep it on him!"
The Indians circled like wolves.But Williamson and Taylor refused to blink. They left with precision, defended with soft hands, batted like men who'd faced storms before.
By the tenth over of the day, Aarav went around the wicket, seam tilting to cut across the right-hander. One ball seamed away past Williamson's bat — so close that Kohli actually laughed.
"So close," he murmured, shaking his head.
Karthik:
"That's brilliant! Aarav Pathak has that late tail in, late out — the control is world-class."
The crowd buzzed, sensing greatness even in failure.
By the time Kohli finally gave Aarav the nod to rest, the young pacer had bent the ball both ways, beaten edges, and left bruises on hearts if not the scorecard.
New Zealand 300/2.The lead swelled. The fight stayed.
The ball grew softer. The shine dulled. Kohli turned to Shami and Ishant.
Williamson, patient till now, began to unfurl. His wrists loosened; his footwork turned graceful. Shami's precision met the Kiwi's calm — an artist against another.
A late flick past midwicket — two runs. A crisp cover drive — four. The chant began softly, then grew.
"Kane! Kane! Kane!"
The Indian section clapped too — respect was in the air.
Kohli adjusted the field — pulled midwicket out, pushed the slips tighter. A trap, perhaps. But Williamson was beyond traps.
On 99, he waited. Shami ran in. The ball, pitched on middle and leg, was met with a perfect whip through square. The crowd erupted — umbrellas raised, flags waving, applause rolling like rain.
Isa Guha, her tone warm and awed:
"A century from the captain — a masterpiece of patience and poise."
Karthik:
"That's what champions do. Kane Williamson — take a bow."
Kohli clapped too, one of those rare moments where pride and rivalry meet halfway. Then he turned, eyes sharp again.
"Alright, enough celebration. Back to work!"
The crowd laughed softly — even the English found the fire familiar.
By 110 overs, Williamson stood on 108, serene, sweat-darkened hair under the helmet. Taylor had found rhythm too, 60 off 130 balls.
Aarav sat near the ropes, sipping water, watching the board flicker — Williamson 100 (202) — and muttered under his breath,
"Next time… I'll get him."
Kohli sensed the pitch changing. The cracks were widening."Ash, your time," he said simply.
Ashwin adjusted his cap, polished the ball, and walked to the top of his run-up with the quiet assurance of a craftsman.
The first few overs teased turn. Taylor poked, nudged, and then decided — attack.
Two boundaries — one through backward point, one driven through mid-off. The crowd cheered, momentum with New Zealand.
Karthik:
"Ross Taylor loves pace, but against spin, he sometimes overreaches."
Ashwin flighted one, slower, loopier, drifting across. Taylor rocked back to cut — a faint edge.
Sound.
Pant sprang, gloves safe as destiny. He caught it, clean.
Silence — then a roar.
Nasser Hussain:
"He's gone! Ashwin again! India break through!"
Isa Guha:
"And look at Kohli — that's pure passion, the fire of belief!"
Kohli sprinted toward Ashwin, chest bump, primal scream.The Indian flags waved wildly.
Aarav joined, fist raised, voice hoarse.
"Finally, the door's open!"
Taylor gone for 64.The partnership broken at 348/3.
Henry Nicholls walked in, his face calm, movements measured. The pitch was cracking, but the score was towering.
Kohli packed the close cordon — slip, gully, short leg, silly point.The sound of fielders' breath filled the space between deliveries.
Aarav was recalled for a short burst before lunch.
He ran in — bouncer first. Nicholls ducked, barely. The ball flew to Pant.
Next ball — a late outswinger, drawing him forward, missing by a whisker. Kohli's hands on his head.
Nasser:
"Pathak again, full of intensity. Even after long spells, he's still at Kohli's shoulder."
Williamson, on strike now, guided the last ball of the session through third man — soft, elegant, inevitable. The ball rolled to the boundary as the crowd stood again.
Isa Guha:
"What a session — Williamson's calm century, India's fight, and this battle at Lord's just refuses to end."
The umpires called lunch.
Session Summary
Day 5 – Session 1 (Overs 90.1 – 120.0) New Zealand 397/3 (Williamson 108*, Nicholls 44*)Ross Taylor 64 (c Pant b Ashwin)
Session: 120 runs, 1 wicket Lead: 228 runs
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Lord's. Late afternoon light. A Test hanging by a thread.
The sunlight had thinned to a slow gold, like honey poured across the turf. Clouds, which had loitered all morning, finally opened their fists and let the sun through — as if the match had earned the light. The grandstands hummed with a restless, expectant noise: coffee cups clinked, scarves shuffled, flags flapped. Ten thousand breaths drew in, waiting.
On the scoreboard New Zealand's number pulsed in white: 397 for 3. The lead felt heavy, the mountain real. Williamson and Nicholls stood there like two calm sentinels, carving edges and nudging singles. But in the Indian huddle, the air had changed. Kohli's eyes were an open flame. He moved like a man who wanted everything now.
"Aarav," he said, close enough for only the young bowler to hear, "Get ready!"
Aarav's reply was a nod, small and sure. His shirt was soaked, shoulders tight from the morning fire, but there was a fierceness in his jaw. He rolled the ball under his palm and felt the seam — a tiny ridge of possibility. When he walked out, the crowd leaned with him.
Nicholls and Williamson began after lunch with intent, the scoreboard creeping, the partnership confident. Kohli watched them like a general watching a breach. Ishant had the first real success: a late, nagging full-length delivery that took the edge and found leather. Pant's hands closed like a trap. Nicholls 58 — out, and the hush broke into a roar.
"Finally!" Michael Atherton's voice carried in the box. "Ishant with the classic Lord's line."
Aarav replaced Shami with fire in his legs. The first ball from him sizzled: late outward swing; Williamson's bat missed by a whisper. The second scraped the outside edge — Pant sprang but grass betrayed the gloved reach. The third, angled around the wicket, zipped with intent. Williamson, for the first time, looked unsettled.
He was a mountain, yes, but even mountains have fault lines.
Aarav mixed short, sharp bouncers with heaving outswingers, the rhythm a metronome of menace. Kohli brought the cordon in — three slips, a gully, short leg. The field was a net; the ball was the spark.
Then, the ball moved like a decision. Fuller, angled across, late seam bite — a faint nick. Pant stretched full length, fingers wide, the leather slapping into white like a struck bell. For a breath the crowd held everything: breath, noise, time — then exhaled in a sound that shattered the afternoon.
Williamson 126 — c Pant b A. Pathak.
Ian Bishop's baritone cracked with joy. "HE'S DONE IT! Pathak gets the captain! The man of the moment — that's the knockout blow!"
Sunil Gavaskar, almost speechless, added, "Swing, pace, control — Test match perfection."
Aarav felt the sound of Lord's fold into him. He roared, arms spread, a clean, animal release. Kohli collided into him, two bodies and one emotion — triumph thin as air. For a moment the world was blue and white flags, and then the game resumed.
Ashwin slipped into the attack with the old ball like a surgeon. He gave the ball flight; he found the crack; he spun the room. Watling fought with grit but miscued one that pivoted wrong and was bowled — the gate splintered. De Grandhomme, who tried to hit out, misread a flight and lofted to midwicket. Aarav, who had been everywhere, took a diving catch that snapped the momentum.
"India is everywhere," Ian Bishop said. "Aarav with the catch, Ashwin with the guile — this is carnage."
Gavaskar's voice swelled with pride. "Ashwin's artistry. And Pathak — bat, ball, field: he's in the heart of this match."
Two quick wickets. Two cracks opening in a face that had seemed uncrackable. Lord's was now a cauldron.
Kohli kept striking while the iron was hot. He brought Bumrah back with one clear instruction: be bold. Bumrah obeyed. Short, then full; yorker then searing seam. Jamieson's stumps rattled like a set of dry bones on the second ball of an over — precise, final. Southee tried to counter with aggression; Bumrah answered it with another sentry yorker that found timber. Bodies fell; stumps fell; the Kiwi middle-order staggered.
"The stumps are flying at Lord's!" Atherton shouted. "Bumrah — lightning."
Blue flags erupted. Indian fans danced in aisles that a little while earlier had been gripped in anxious silence. The river of momentum that had flowed toward New Zealand had been dammed.
Only Jamieson and Boult were left when Ashwin, with the old ball polished and pure in his hand, spun webs. Wagner lofted and Aarav, sprinting from mid-on, held a catch that seemed to arrive as if on cue. Boult tried the last stubborn resistance but yielded to the guile of spin — Ashwin's wristwork betraying the seam's last whispers. The umpire's finger rose: all out — 538.
The scoreboard flashed its arithmetic like thunder: New Zealand 538. Lead 369 Target 370.
Across Lord's the sounds layered: "Aarav! Aarav!" from the Indian bay, applause from the Kiwis for their fallen captain, and the crack of the scoreboard announcing the chase: India need 370.
Michael Atherton's voice came lower, laden: "What a turnaround. From 397 for 3 to 538 all out — and you can trace that arc right back to one delivery, one moment, one young man finding the seam."
Ian Bishop: "This is the kind of afternoon that gives you goosebumps. This is what Test cricket was built for."
End of Session — The Mountain & The Door
As players walked off, the floodlights blinked awake and a cool wind stirred the flags. The target gleamed like destiny: 370. Kohli's eyes were fierce as ever; Aarav's were quiet, burning with a promise.
He squinted at the scoreboard one last time, whispering, as if to himself and the pitch and the memory he was making: "I'll finish what I started."
The camera panned out over Lord's: a cathedral of cricket, applause echoing like oaths. The afternoon had flipped a script; a chase had been written on the turf. The world seemed to hold its breath for India's reply — for the final act.
They said no one wins chasing 370 at Lord's. Aarav Pathak did not care for what people say.
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