England nudge ahead amid showers

England kept their noses in front on the third day of the intriguing First Test against India at Lord’s, though the tourists did not allow them to run away with proceedings, dismissing both openers in the second-innings and keeping a tight rein on the scoring. Like Friday the day was a stop-start one – just 47 overs were bowled – though with the forecast for both days it has been something of a bonus to get any play at all.

Bright skies greeted the players in the morning, completely different scenes to the previous day which had seen the outfield flooded. The dampness, however, has never quite gone away, and swing has never evaporated. Even though 57 overs had been bowled with it, James Anderson, who had snared Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar with deliveries that went in opposite directions yesterday, was able to get the ball to talk substantially. Michael Vaughan elected to open with Anderson and Chris Tremlett, but the Hampshire seamer could not replicate his relatively impressive performance of the previous day, and rarely threatened. Fortunately for England, Anderson did, with prodigious, and late, swing, pinpoint lines, and most pleasingly of all great intelligence. After peppering Sourav Ganguly with outswingers from over the wicket, the Lancastrian produced a superb inswinger which decked back in late, easily beat the batsman’s prod, and snuck past the pads to crash into the off-stump.

Rutra Pratap Singh, however, proved surprisingly difficult to dislodge, despite never looking especially convincing. He even managed two crunching off-side strokes off Tremlett, which prompted Vaughan to remove him from the attack and recall Sidebottom. Like Anderson the Notts man immediately got the ball to move both ways in the air, and finally persuaded Rutra Pratap to throw the hands at one that came back in, and miscue to mid-on. Anderson positioned himself well under a ball that went up a long way, and swallowed the catch. Shortly after he was back in action with the ball in hand, as Dhoni twice guided deliveries virtually straight to the slip-cordon. The first dropped a fraction short of second but the second went straight to Ian Bell at third, who made no error.

The hosts did not have to wait long to get the last three wickets either: as they had lost their last 7 for 46, India went from 155 for 4 to 201 all out. In both cases, however, fine swing bowling rather than loose batting had been the catalyst, and Sidebottom again produced a top-drawer nip-backer to Kumble which gave Simon Taufel an easy decision, then worked Laxman over in the complete opposite of the way Anderson saw off Ganguly. A series of inswingers, which the batsman did well to keep out, was followed by one from wide on the crease that went straight on and drew a nick. Either bowler could have had a five-for, but Anderson perhaps best deserved the final wicket, which he got when Zaheer Khan gloved a short delivery to Strauss at first-slip attempting to pull.

Anderson finished with 24.2-42-5, in what has pretty much beyond doubt been the finest spell of his Test career. He has played just 5 out of England’s last 34 Tests, three last winter which found him disastrously under-prepared. As at Mumbai in March 2006, however, he has finally demonstrated once again his true capabilities, causing serious problems to the star-studded Indian middle-order. Sidebottom, too, delivered once again, finishing with 22-65-4. England had earned a lead of 97, which they extended to 105 in the 2 overs before lunch.

The clouds, however, rolled in during the break, and first bad light, then rain, held-up proceedings for 2-and-a-half hours. Play eventually resumed at 3:30, and the England scoring-rate remained high for the next 6 overs: after 8, England were 35 for 0. In the 11th, however, Zaheer produced an away-swinger that lured Strauss into the drive, took the edge and gave Tendulkar at first-slip a simple chance. Strauss has still yet to totally convincingly throw off his poor form, and in Zaheer’s following over Alastair Cook was trapped lbw for the second time in the match, though this time in a more conventional manner. Zaheer brought the ball back from outside off and saw it thudding into Cook’s front pad, giving Steve Bucknor another easy decision.

Vaughan and Kevin Pietersen were tested by the left-armers, as clouds gathered once again and the ball continued to swing. Playing-and-missing was more common for a time than bat on ball. However, rain forced the players from the field for a further 2-and-a-quarter hours. Proceedings eventually resumed just before 7 o’clock, and closed at 7:37 after a further 8 overs in which contained few alarms. England have a sizeable lead and 8 wickets intact, but with the way one dismissal has routinely brought 5 or 6 in this Test will be taking precisely nothing for granted.

England 298
Andrew Strauss 96, Michael Vaughan 79
Sreesanth 3-67, RP Singh 2-58

India 201
Wasim Jaffer 58, Sachin Tendulkar 37, Sourav Ganguly 34
James Anderson 5-43, Ryan Sidebottom 4-65

England 77-2
Zaheer Khan 2-36

England lead by 174 runs with 8 wickets remaining