Dravid century keeps India afloat at Lord’s

Fifteen years after his debut at Lord's, Rahul Dravid gets his dream hundred; India in trouble though

Dravid century keeps India afloat at Lord's

Fifteen years after his debut at Lord's, Rahul Dravid gets his dream hundred; India in trouble though

At last, Indian greats Vinoo Mankad, Gundappa Vishwanath, Dilip Vengsarkar, Mohammed Azharuddin, Ravi Shastri and Sourav Ganguly have some company on the batting honours board at Lord's.

Rahul Dravid celebrates his maiden Lord's century during Day
Three of the first Test against England on Saturday. Pic/AFP

Rahul Dravid's entry after Ajit Agarkar's name as Indian Test centurions at Lord's was greeted with applause, appreciation and adoration. In fact, the class act deserves much more than that considering his critical contribution to India's cricketing fortunes over the last 15 years.

He scored his first hundred at the erstwhile headquarters of world cricket on a day -- Day Three of the opening Test against England -- when he became the second highest run-scorer in Test cricket after leader Sachin Tendulkar.

To merely say his strokeplay was fluent en route to his 33rd Test century would be a undermining the way he put bat to ball against the best pace attack in the world for those who believe South Africa's attack comes second.

It was an innings played in the face of adversity alright -- coming in at his customary one-drop position and staying unbeaten in the end with 103 out of 286. When he was not defending stoutly, Dravid was piercing the extra cover area and collecting runs in the region of third man. He was like a caring nurse when it came to sticking to the fundamentals of innings-building and surgeon-like with his field dissection.

And though there was a case of his square drive off Jimmy Anderson to be the former captain's shot of the day, the drive through mid-wicket off Chris Tremlett which got him the century was the most unforgettable.

There have been centuries which have been more critical for him and India, but from purely a personal point of view, this one must rank up there. After all, he fell short of a Test debut hundred here by just five runs in 1996.
u00a0
Unfortunately for Indian fans, India are in deep trouble -- England lead by 193 runs with two days to go. The Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar partnership (81 runs) promised much.u00a0

A dream 100th international century from Tendulkar was on the cards, but Stuart Broad sent the crowd's hopes crashing by getting the master batsman to edge to Graeme Swann at slips. Broad, watched by his match referee father Chris ended up being the most successful bowler of the day with 4 for 37. But Anderson (2-87) and Tremlett (3 for 80) were sharp, dangerous and wily too.

The star-studded audience to watch the great Indian batting line-up in cricket's best known theatre included legendary guitarist Eric Clapton. Tendulkar couldn't rock hard, but at least Dravid played lead.

Brief scores:
England: 474-8 decl Kevin Pietersen n o 202, Matt Prior 71; Praveen Kumar 5-106. India: 286 Rahul Dravid 103 n o, Abhinav Mukund 49; Stuart Broad 4-37, Chris Tremlett 3-80. England (2inns): 5-0