Rahul grinds out ton, Test perfectly poised at Lord's

Opener's classy 100 and fifties by Pant and Jadeja help India level England’s first innings score of 387

- Rasesh Mandani

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.

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.