KL Rahul succumbed to a loose drive after completing his second century at Lord’s before Nitish Reddy and Ravindra Jadeja survived an attacking spell of fast bowling from Jofra Archer as India reached 316 for five at tea on the third day of the third Test between India and England on Saturday.
Rahul reached his 10th hundred in Tests soon after lunch with a single off Archer. He is the second Indian batsman after Dilip Vengsarkar (three centuries) to score multiple hundreds at the Lord's. However, he lapse in concentration did him in the very next over when he went for a drive off a flighted delivery from Shoaib Bashir, but ended up edging it to Harry Brook at first slip.
Runs were hard to come by in the tea session with India scoring only 68 runs. Reddy was hit on the grille off a sharply rising delivery from Archer late in the session. Bashir was forced off the field soon after he took a wicket as he injured his left finger while fielding off his own bowling. Reddy and Jadeja’s running between the wickets left a lot to be desired. Either of them could have been run out thrice.
England took the second new ball immediately, but it did not pay dividends. Rahul’s wicket early on was the only breakthrough they got in the session. Earlier, Rishabh Pant overcame pain in his left index finger to score an entertaining half-century before getting run out just before lunch, leaving India at 248 for four in 64 overs.
With Rahul nearing a century at the other end, Pant (74 off 112) tried to take an avoidable quick single in the last over of the session, but England skipper Ben Stokes struck with a brilliant direct hit, running in from cover to give his team some hope in a session dominated by the opposition. The partnership between Rahul and Pant was productive, worth 141 runs off 198 balls. Pant fought a lot of discomfort due to the finger injury he suffered while keeping on Day One, but he made his intentions clear even against Archer.
Archer delivered to Pant a loose one on the leg side to start the day’s proceedings before the India vice-captain stepped out of the crease for a slash on the off-side. Barring those two fours, Pant and Rahul played cautiously for the first 30 minutes, scoring just 14 runs in seven overs. Runs began to flow when Rahul hit a punch off the back foot.
Like England had planned for Shubman Gill, the wicket-keeper was brought close to the stumps to discourage Pant from leaving his crease. This worked only briefly till Pant decided to step up the tempo.
Resuming the day at 145 for three, India reached 197 for three in the first hour of play. England had requested for a ball change after the opening hour and the umpires approved the request. Rahul hit Brydon Carse for three successive fours. Pant pulled Ben Stokes over fine leg to complete his half-century. His second six of the innings was off Shoaib Bashir.
Scoreboard: England (1st Innings): 387 all out India (Ist Innings, O/n: 145/3) Yashasvi Jaiswal c Brook b Archer 13 KL Rahul c Brook b Bashir 100 Karun Nair c Root b Stokes 40 Shubman Gill c Smith b Woakes 16 Rishabh Pant (run out) 74 Ravindra Jadeja (batting) 40 Nitish Kumar Reddy (batting) 25 Extras (B-1, LB-2, NB-4, W-1) 8 Total (5 wickets, 91 overs) 316 Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-74, 3-107, 4-248, 5-254.
Bowling: Chris Woakes 23-3-82-1, Jofra Archer 21-6-45-1, Brydon Carse 18-2-74-0, Ben Stokes 13-2-50-1, Shoaib Bashir 14.5-2-59-1, Joe Root 1.1-0-3-0.
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