India's KL Rahul celebrates after completing his century.
Credit: Reuters Photo
London: In a land where royalty is still held in high esteem, the immense class of K L Rahul shone like the precious diamonds on the crowns of kings and queens but the Indians were forced to share the spoils with a determined England on an engrossing Moving Day of the third Test on Saturday.
The 33-year-old Rahul, who made a fine start to the series with a century in the opening Test at Leeds, looked in excellent touch for the fourth time in five innings, scoring a beautifully composed 100 off 177 balls to get his name etched on the revered Honours Board at Lord’s for a second time in his career. Rahul, the senior most specialised batter in this largely young and transitional Indian side, became just the second Indian after the great Dilip Vengsarkar (3) to score multiple centuries at the ‘Home of Cricket’.
Vice-captain Rishabh Pant (74) and Ravindra Jadeja (72) matched Rahul’s determination with game-changing knocks at different stages as India fought hard on an unforgiving London summer day where the temperature peaked to 30 degrees Celsius — it felt a lot more brutal out in the middle with not a single puff of cloud passing through — to post 387 all out, matching England’s score. At stumps England were 2/0 in 1 over.
With India resuming the day on 145/3, a lot hinged on the overnight pair of Rahul and Pant (74). The latter showed his intention by charging down to Jofra Archer the second ball of the day for a boundary, but thereafter both he and Rahul struggled to force the pace on a track that continued to remain sluggish. England skipper Ben Stokes set up some unusual fields in trying to lure Rahul and Pant into false shots, and the Indian duo found their own methods to counter them in what was a game of chess in the opening hour.
Rahul wore his defensive cloak and played each shot according to its merit. He left the ones around the off-stump well and presented a dead bat to the ones coming at him. He simply was batting like a monk. Pant, at the other end, typically had everyone on the edge of their seats. He defended well for most parts, but the moments he decided to pull the trigger, he miscued them. Then Pant, like he always does, berated himself, but he continued to gamble like a poker player.
In all of Pant’s commotion that elicited plenty of oohs and aahs, Rahul batted like a grace-filled ballet dancer. After a silent opening hour, he upped the tempo, but pretty much all of those shots were textbook definitions of how a cover drive, straight drive, pull, and cuts were to be played. Nothing Stokes tried, even Archer’s continuous 90 miles per hour plus bullets, disturbed him, and a century looked imminent.
But just when he was one run short of it in the last over before lunch, Pant committed harakiri to present England a chance. He dabbed the ball and called Rahul for a quick single in a bid to get him on strike and the century before the break. But an exceptional throw from Stokes, a real moment of magic, caught Pant short of his crease that ended a 141-run association. Pant walked back dejected, Rahul looked skywards while England erupted.
Rahul got to the coveted century right after resumption, but disaster struck right after the celebrations. He lunged forward lazily to Shoaib Bashir and was caught at slip by Harry Brook. India, who were looking good, suddenly slipped to 254/5 as England smelt blood. That’s when the experience of Jadeja and the grit of Nitish steadied the ship with their 72-run stand for the sixth wicket. Thereafter the impressive Washington Sundar (23) joined forces with Jadeja for a 50-run partnership for the seventh wicket as India continued to defy England.