A session into the third day’s play at Lord’s and Stuart Broad had removed both the Indian openers. But that was not before they had added 63 for the first wicket, invaluable runs given the absence of Virender Sehwag from the line-up.
Abhinav Mukund’s 49 Usurped By Stuart Broad’s Two Scalps
The early part of the session saw the two bowlers, Chris Tremlett and James Anderson get enough swing at healthy pace, to make things tough for the Indian openers. However, where the Indians got away was that not too many of the deliveries would have gone on to hit the stumps, given the length that they bowled – a tad on the shorter side.
Rather surprisingly, it was Abhinav Mukund who got off the blocks quicker than his more experienced partner in Gautam Gambhir. Mukund started off with a brace of three runs, before going after James Anderson for a four through the slips. Later, Tremlett was consumed for another couple of fours by Mukund as he looked to get closer to his half-century.
The introduction of Stuart Broad did not change things from the scoring perspective, but the length definitely changed for the better. Known to bowl on the shorter side, Broad began to push the ball up to the batsmen and finally got his reward when he had Gambhir bowled off an in-swinging delivery pitched up.
Mukund got 49, but nervousness at the threshold of his first half-century seemed to have got the better of him as he chased a wide one and was bowled. Broad was the bowler again.
Rahul Dravid steadied the ship as he has usually done in his career batting at three, and in partnership with Sachin Tendulkar, saw the Indians through to 102 for the loss of two wickets. Tendulkar had walked out to bat at the fall of Mukund’s wicket to a rapturous Lord’s reception where he is probably playing his last international – chasing his 100th international century.
England had scored 474 in their first innings.
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