Bet your shirt on it, Nasser will smile at Lord’s

With the top three back in pavilion India were 232/6, needing 336 for an almost impossible victory, with VVS Laxman (38) and Ajit Agarkar (28) at crease.

Even though England had a definite advantage right from the first innings, there was some hope that India could still make an attempt to save the match. It was evident that Indian batsman were in no mood to take up the fight. Though Wasim Jaffer began the innings with a boundary to third man off Hoggard it was apparent that the tourists had Mission Impossible on hand. The way Jaffer and Virender Sehwag began it looked like the Indians were in a hurry while the need of the hour was patience.

Like in the first innings, it was the lethal fifth ball from Hoggard that almost sealed Jaffer’s fate again. A bouncing ball kissed Jaffer’s gloves but Ashley Giles in gully failed to take the catch. A few overs later Sehwag too got a life from an unexpected quarter. Sehwag edged Flintoff to third slip, where Hussain dropped a simple catch. One shouldn’t expect such mercies from the eagle-eyed Hussain who is always prepared to pounce on anything that comes in his direction.

Despite the early chances, the openers started to punish the loose balls. Sehwag hit five boundaries in his 27-run knock. But in the 13th over of the inning the tearaway paceman Simon Jones bowled 83.6 miles delivery that rocked Sehwag’s castle. The ball taking the inside edge, hit the off stump and sent it cartwheeling.

Meanwhile, Jaffer at the other end was cautiously moving ahead and reached his half century with seven hits to the fence. Hussain’s inspired move to bring in the part-time bowler Michael Vaughan paid rich dividend when he had Jaffer offering a simple catch to Hussain at slip.

Sachin Tendulkar arrived to accompany Dravid who had by that time accumulated 34 runs. But like his illustrious predecessor Sunil Gavaskar, Lord’s doesn’t seem to be his favourite ground. Though Tendulkar dispatched the first ball from Jones straight for four, the world’s greatest batsman soon departed.

Hoggard bowled Tendulkar to pick up his well deserved 50th Test wicket. The drama didn’t end there. The next ball saw the Indian captain Ganguly following Tendulkar’s footsteps. A rather questionable decision as the ball seemed to have pitched outside the leg stump. At 140/4, it looked that the Test would be over with a day to spare.

Laxman prevented Hoggard hat-tick and like in the first innings launched another rearguard action.

Dravid’s sensible innings ended in a suicidal manner. A wild shot to turning delivery from Ashley Giles saw him being clean bowled.

The last wicket to fall before stumps was that of Ajay Ratra. Hoggard claiming his third wicket as Mark Butcher at gully held a sharp catch.

Earlier in the day Crawley became the third England batsman to score a century in this Test. In fact Hussain delayed his declaration allowing the batsman to complete his fourth Test century. England’s most capped Test player Alec Stewart played a cameo knock 33 in 39 balls.