London: Ravindra Jadeja turned up at Lord’s two hours before the start of the third day’s play on Saturday. He took Nitish Kumar Reddy along to the nets and had an extensive batting session. The weekend crowd, in early, watched. Jadeja later went on to put up a display of clean batting in the last two sessions to keep the attritional third Test on an even keel.With all the focus on the younger crop in the team, Jadeja and KL Rahul — having more than a decade of Test cricket behind them — had to re-establish their credentials. As it turned out, India’s three most experienced batters — Jadeja, Rahul and Rishabh Pant — carried the batting with their maturity.Rahul’s 100, Pant’s 74 and Jadeja’s 72 blunted the English attack on another day of gruelling Test cricket. As Washington Sundar’s wild hoick off Jofra Archer landed in the safe hands of Harry Brook, India’s innings finished at 387, the same score England put up in their first innings. After three full days of cricket, both teams still can’t be separated.England’s openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett took forever to take strike to ensure they didn’t have to play more than an over. The out-of-form Crawley, clearly nervous, stopped four times and even called the physio, even as the Indian fielders surroundedand went hard at him. When Bumrah eventually beat him with a cracking out-swinger off the last ball, Crawley turned around and walked at the pace of an Olympic racewalker towards the pavilion! He didn’t even wait for Duckett to join him.
India saw off a probing day of bowling on a pitch which was baking under the blazing sun and had just enough to keep bowlers interested. England captain Ben Stokes went hard at the Indian batting in the last session, bowling flat out in a 10-over spell which accounted for Reddy for 30.If Rahul and Pant’s faultless 141-run partnership set the stage for India’s charge, Jadeja batted beautifully with Reddy and Washington Sundar against the second new ball. Jadeja made sure India didn’t let go of the advantage after Pant and Rahul fell within 10 balls either side of lunch.
Inconsistency has been the bane of Rahul’s career. As he calmly pushed Jofra Archer to the covers in the first over after lunch, Rahul’s name went up on the Lord’s honours board for the second time. If the century here in 2021 was about proving his worth in the Test team, this one has enhanced his stature as the senior batter in the dressing room.Resuming the day delicately placed at 145/3, Pant and Rahul complemented each other to wear down the English attack. Pant did break free with his characteristic big shots off Archer, Chris Woakes and Ben Stokes. The duo brought down the shortball strategy with calculated and bold strokeplay.
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The England pacers attacked Pant’s injured left index finger with balls aimed at his armpit. Pant’s audacious six over long leg, off Stokes, brought up yet another halfcentury. And when Rahul moved away to the on-side and swatted Brydon Carse’s bouncer over mid-off for a boundary, England’s plans appeared to be falling flat.A few minutes of careless cricket from Pant and Rahul on either side of lunch got the home team back in the game. Pant, in a bid to give Rahul a shot to reach his hundred before lunch, took off for suicidal single off Shoaib Bashir, only for Stokes to pull off a spectacular run out.
