India cricket captain Shubman Gill aims X-rated insult at England's Zak Crawley in fiery scenes

India captain Shubman Gill was less than impressed with the time-wasting antics of England opener Zak Crawley as the Lord's Test turned fiery in the closing stages of the third day.

With England having dismissed India for 387, ensuring the scores were level after the first innings for only the ninth time in Test match history, England openers Crawley and Ben Duckett were required to begin their second innings late on Saturday.

The pair emerged to the crease slowly in order to delay the restart of play for as long as possible, aiming to ensure that they would only face one over in the testing evening conditions before the 6.30pm cut-off point.

With Crawley facing India's Jasprit Bumrah, the opener delayed the Indian quick as he ran in to bowl, citing movement behind the bowler's arm.

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Crawley was then hit on the hand by a rasping Bumrah delivery, and immediately called for medical attention to halt the game even further. That enraged Gill and his team-mates, who surrounded Crawley and Duckett and demanded they get on with the game, with Indian fans booing in the stands.

Skipper Gill then furiously pointed at Crawley, made a cupped gesture with both hands and could be heard on the stump microphone shouting "show some f***ing balls!"

With England 2-0 in their reply, Crawley then left Bumrah's final delivery of the over and immediately began to march off the Lord's pitch. Gill and the India players followed, first confronting Duckett and remonstrating with the umpires.

Crawley then stopped halfway through his walk and waited for Duckett, prompting more angry words between himself and Gill.

The incidents ramped up the tension in an evenly matched Test series which stands at 1-1 after two matches, and ahead of what will essentially be a one innings match over the next two days.

Ben Stokes had earlier roused England’s spirits with two decisive interventions, pulling off the opportunistic run-out of Rishabh Pant in the last over before lunch and removing Nitish Kumar Reddy with a vicious lifter in the evening.

On both occasions the England captain ended important partnerships, worth 141 and 72 respectively, but the English attack looked too blunt for too long on a sluggish surface.

India favoured old-fashioned accumulation, KL Rahul’s even 100 backed by half-centuries from Pant (74) and Ravindra Jadeja (72).

England’s bowling options were reduced by the loss of Shoaib Bashir to an injured little finger in the afternoon session.

There was an encouragingly fiery burst from Jofra Archer midway through the day, recalling his 2019 heyday with a spell of express pace that peaked at 94mph.