Ind Eng T1 Day 3 Stumps: India Avoid Follow On; Rahul Dravid Hits Century at Lord’s

It was a day of the battle for survival for the Indian team against the hungry pace attack of the England team. India did manage the follow on by stumps on the third day of the first Test of the India England series at Lord’s, but they are still a long way from saving this Test match, leave alone winning it.

Rahul Dravid

It was a day anticipated to produce Sachin Tendulkar’s 100th international century. Instead it was a day when India struggled to keep England back from fancying their chances of winning the first Test against the no.1 ranked Test team. It was another stalwart, Rahul Dravid, who steered India away from a full blown disaster into a situation where they must still fight the better part of two days before they can find themselves safe on shores.

The day began with Abhinav Mukund and Gautam Gambhir almost seeing off the early hours of the third day. While Mukund was holding his own with forty-nine runs, Gambhir showed signs of promise before he became the first of Stuart Broad’s four wickets for the day. England’s gamble to go with Broad over Tim Bresnan paid off handsomely because Broad was menacing with the best bowler in England’s line up to take wickets on the day.

With the door open, it paved the way for Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar and they did not disappoint, for the most part anyway. Weathering England’s pace attack, the duo appeared to be cutting loose following the morning session. Their eighty-one run partnership for the third wicket bettered the sixty-three run opening wicket partnership as India seemed to have overcome the initial concerns over following from England’s first innings score of eight down for 474.

Tendulkar seemed steady batting on thirty-four before Broad ensured the slips would come into play. At that point, India were three down for 158 and it could soon have been five down just as easily as Andrew Strauss, the England Test captain, and Graeme Swann, were both guilty of dropping regulation slip catches, giving life to Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman. Suddenly the menace in England’s bowling was back following Tendulkar’s wicket and avoiding the follow on seemed like a far away proposition for India.

Laxman did not make the most of the reprieve while Dravid were forced to contend with the situation as Suresh Raina was sent back for a duck. Mahendra Singh Dhoni joined Dravid then in an important fifty-seven run partnership after India found themselves in plenty of trouble at five down for 183. Tremlett eventually struck to remove the Indian skipper batting on twenty-eight and with the tricky situation of the follow on remaining, Praveen Kumar’s unorthodox shot making for seventeen runs allowed the second highest Test run getter, Rahul Dravid, to get to his own thirty-third Test century, his first at Lord’s after missing it on debut when he was dismissed for ninety-five.

India eventually ended their first innings on 286, Tremlett contributing three wickets while James Anderson finally made himself visible on the scorecard with two wickets of his own. England had a sumptuous lead of 188 from the first innings and they managed to successfully see off the five overs remaining in the day’s play, setting up the game with an opportunity for victory with two days remaining following stumps on day three.