Rahul grinds out a second ton as Lord’s Test perfectly poised

The opener’s classy 100 and excellent fifties by Pant and Jadeja help India level England’s first innings score on Day 3 of the Test

Mumbai: India batted for 119.2 overs to England’s 112.3 overs. After three days of attritional play in the harsh English summer, under a sky with barely any cloud, the Dukes ball getting repeatedly and frustratingly soft, there was nothing to separate the two sides. The teams have ended on identical first innings totals of 387, turning the Lord’s Test into a second innings shoot out with two days left.

KL Rahul celebrates his century on the third day of the third Test in Lord’s on Saturday. (PTI)

Day 3 began with KL Rahul looking the most assured while scoring one of the most classical hundreds seen in the series. Even then, as he walked through the Lord’s Long Room after becoming the 100th player to have got out on exactly hundred, one could see that Rahul wasn’t quite in the mood to appreciate the standing ovation, thinking of what might have been.

Before the series, Rahul knew his sub-35 career average after 10 years and 58 Tests made for poor reading. It is one of the reasons he was overlooked for captaincy when the opportunity presented itself.

Now the seniormost batter in the side, there are ample signs of Rahul wanting to make this “a big series”, as chief selector Ajit Agarkar wanted him to. This is the first time he has two hundreds to show in a series, underlining the consistency that was lacking in his cricket.

Sadly for Rahul, Rishabh Pant’s wicket had been sacrificed in a completely avoidable run out, in a bid to help Rahul avoid the psychological burden of an impending hundred during lunch break. To make matters worse, moments after Rahul’s century on resumption, he nicked a tossed up off-break from Shoaib Bashir to slip. In the context of the match, on a moving day, from looking like making it a leather chasing day for England, India had squandered the advantage.

Until he was dismissed, Rahul had been a model of concentration. Picking his battles with care, punishing the slightly erratic Brydon Carse and Chris Woakes, who lacked bite. He played close to the body as the more successful openers in England do and latched on to every loose delivery England offered while they focused on containing Pant’s aggression at the other end.

Pant’s innings, despite battling pain in his injured left index finger, was thrill-a-minute. The Rahul-Pant 141-run partnership was the biggest of the match. After their departures on either side of lunch, India were anxious to not squander their fightback.

CricViz put out the data showing how much in control Rahul had been throughout the series - only 12 percent of his shots were false shots. But would his contributions help India take control of the series?

To push India further back, Stokes introduced Jofra Archer early. Even with a ball 70 overs old, he bowled thunderbolts to Nitish Reddy. Archer forced Reddy to take evasive action and gave him a long stare everytime.

Stokes then hit the young all-rounder on the helmet during a short ball barrage of his own. Reddy though survived and with the calming presence of Ravindra Jadeja at the other end, helped stitch a crucial 72-run sixth wicket partnership.

In a match of fluctuating fortunes, mirroring the series, the pendulum again seemed to swing towards India when Stokes, England’s omnipresent hero – his direct hit had run out Pant – pulled another one back for hosts. He was able to deliver a brute of a lifter that caught Reddy’s (30) edge to the keeper.

Only the other day, Stokes took extended treatment on his groin while batting and it wasn’t sure if he would be able to bowl at all. Here he was bowling longish spells bending his back while the other bowlers struggled to make the second new ball count. So much so that Stokes trusted Joe Root with a long spell over Woakes after Basheer had to go off with a finger injury suffered while trying to take a return catch off Jadeja.

Quietly, Jadeja took a toll of Root’s off-spin. Not going hammer and tongs but milking him for runs. One of the brave selection calls India have taken in the series is loading the team with the extra all-rounder over Kuldeep Yadav’s wrist spin. Washington Sundar (23) was again able to provide useful lower order runs to complement yet another sword-wielding fifty from Jadeja -- it ended on 72 following a catch down the leg side but helped India inched up to 387.

Once the lower middle order batters did their job, Rahul would have breathed easy. On a day he became the scorer of most Test hundreds by an Indian opener in England, he wouldn’t have wanted a moment of indiscretion over running between the wickets to blight the mood.