England took firm control of the first Test against India at Lord’s on the end of the third day’s play. India were bowled out for just 286 and England were 5 for no loss at stumps, and therefore with a lead of 193 runs.
Stuart Broad and Chris Tremlett were the pick of the bowlers with four and three wickets respectively. Rahul Dravid waged a lone battle for India and was unbeaten on 103.
India started the day well. Gautam Gambhir struggled to get his runs but Abhinav Mukund looked comfortable and easily outscored his senior partner. Stuart Broad broke the partnership with a cracker of an inswinger that sneaked between bat and pad. Mukund was the next to go while being on the verge of a well deserved half century. His urgency to get to his half century made him play a wide delivery from Broad, which he only managed to drag onto the stumps.
Sachin Tendulkar joined Dravid and the pair were very aggressive immediately after lunch. However, Tendulkar, after racing to 32 runs off just 41 balls, got into a shell. He paid the price for it when he poked at a ball from Stuart Broad, only to see Graeme Swann take a nice low catch at third slip.
VVS Laxman too perished to give Tremlett the first of his three wickets. He has not contributed in the first Test match of a series for a long time now and that tradition continued here as well. The idea to promote Suresh Raina before MS Dhoni didn’t work as he fell after just two balls, adjudged LBW off Swann.
The captain joined Dravid and the pair added runs at an excruciating pace. Dhoni finally fell to Tremlett, after the second new ball was taken and this opened the tail up. Harbhajan Singh fell in the same over. Praveen Kumar provided some entertainment with some lusty blows and took some pressure off Dravid.
Dravid got to his 33rd century with a push to midwicket and was cheered by everyone in the crowd. However the last two wickets fell quickly and India were behind by 188 runs.
Zaheer Khan did not come onto bowl in the second innings as well but there was no point in it as there were only five overs in the day. India are unlikely to risk him on the fourth day as England are likely to bat only for 80 overs or so.