The Broad Wall of India - Day Three at Lord's

It was meant to be all about Sachin, but in the end it was Rahul Dravid who found his name on the honours board with a typically gutsy innings. Although he benefited from Graeme Swann spilling an awkward but very catchable chance at second slip, no-one could have begrudged him his hundred on a day when the much vaunted Indian batting line-up struggled against a disciplined and, occasionally, inspired England attack.

For England, all eyes were on Stuart Broad. Many people, including me, would have picked Tim Bresnan over him for this match and his first ball duck on Friday hardly inspired confidence, but with the ball he was back to his best, pitching it up and swinging it, rather as he did at the Oval a couple of years ago. Gambhir had no answer to a big in swinger and Mukund dragged on a rare wide ball to bring Tendulkar to the crease.

There were flickers of genius, most notably a gorgeous back foot punch through the off side, but there were also some plays and misses as the great man settled down to his task and, in truth, it was no great surprise when he edged to slip to continue his dismal run of scores in tests at Lord’s.

It was a surprise, however, when England dropped two catches in an over. Strauss’s was one that he would catch 99 times out of 100, but today was not his day. Swann’s was harder, but he has caught superbly over the last couple of years and I suspect that both Stuart Broad and Rahul Dravid were surprised to see it grassed, although  their other emotions may have been rather different.

The drop of Laxman proved not to be too costly as he wafted Tremlett to Trott at deep backward square, and Raina’s stay was brief. Dhoni hung around, restraining his natural instincts to help Dravid to add fifty, but once he had departed the only resistance came from an entertaining cameo from Praveen Kumar that took India past the follow-on total. England had a few tricky overs to survive to the end of play, but did so without any great alarms and will resume tomorrow with all ten wickets standing.

The day, though, was all about Rahul Dravid’s maiden Lord’s century, fifteen years after his 95 on debut, and Stuart Broad’s dazzling return to form. Tomorrow promises to be another fabulous day – bring it on.