23:51
Karthick Dharman
Sachin Tendulkar may have disappointed by not scoring his 100th ton, but Rahul Dravid did not. Score | Photos
The Wall stood tall scoring his 33rd Test, also his first at Lord's, to help India put on 286 in reply to England's first innings total of 474/8 declared, during the third day of the first Test at Lord's in London on Saturday.
In the process Dravid saved India from following on. But England still enjoyed the edge as their openers Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook came down to bat and put on five runs. At stumps on Day 3 England were leading by 193 runs with 10 wickets in hand.
However, all eyes were on Sachin Tendulkar, who came out into the hallowed greens of Lord's, looked skywards and then gradually and steadily his numbers on the scoreboard started increasing, but Stuart Broad had other plans. He dismissed the Master Blaster on 34 putting an end to his hopes of a 100th ton.
This was after Stuart Broad scalped openers Gautam Gambhir and Abhinav Mukund with his swingers in the first session.
An overnight score of 17/0 was as good as a speck of dust in front of Kevin Pietersen's double ton propelled 474. And India openers Gautam Gambhir and Abhinav Mukund had their task cut out - to stay in the middle for as long as possible.
But that didn't happen as Gambhir ended up losing his wicket cheaply. A swinging ball from Stuart Board crashed into his off stump and the southpaw was walking back on 15 when the team total was 63.
Mukund, on the other hand, seemed to be playing well against the England bolwers. He was effectively countering James Anderson and Stuart Broad's swing and Chris Tremlett's rising balls. Keeping the bat as straight as possible is key against such bowlers and that's what he was doing.
Later Mukund was joined by another batsman, who enjoys keeping the bat straight, it was Rahul Dravid. But their partnership too didn't last long as once again it was Broad who broke their stand.
And the delivery too was a similar to the one that took away Gambhir's wicket. The ball kept low and came in swinging to crash into Mukund's wicket when he was just one run away from his half-century. India lost their second wicket on 77.
Then the moment arrived that that every cricket aficionado was waiting for. Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar stepped in and took guard, even as the world waited for him to complete his 100th international century.
Tendulkar was batting 10 and Dravid on 15 and India score was 102/2 when lunch was called in.
In the second session Tendulkar could be seen batting seamlessly even the England pacers were trying options for the Master Blaster. But his innings came to an abrupt end when he edged Stuart Broad towards the second slip where Graeme Swann made no mistake and Sachin Tendulkar was walked back on 34 and India were down to 158/3.
Broad, who had taken India's top three batsmen, could have scalped VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid in his next over, but skipper Andrew Strauss and later Graeme Swann dropped sitters in the slips cordon.
Soon Dravid went on to score a half-century. But no sooner had he reached there that his partner Laxman hooled out to Jonathan Trott in the deep off Chris Tremlett's ball and India were down to 182/4.
New man Suresh Raina, walked back as soon as he came in with Graeme Swann trapping him leg-before on a duck and India were down to 183/5.
At tea, India were 193/5 with Rahul Dravid and skipper MS Dhoni in the middle.
Dravid and Dhoni put on 57 runs for the sixth wicket before Tremlett stuck again to send the India skipper back and then a ball later he got rid of Turbanator Harbhajn Singh to reduce the visitors to 241/7.
Dravid scored a ton as India were bowled out for 286
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