India forced to follow on, 25 for no loss at tea

Dravid`s masterclass, his 35th Test century, and resistance from the lower-half saw India touch 300 for the first time in the series yet they finished 291 runs behind England`s first innings total of 591 for six declared.

None of the top-order batsmen made substantial contributions with Sachin Tendulkar and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni scoring 23 and 17 respectively.

The Indian first innings ended 40 minutes before tea once last man S Sreesanth offered a tame catch off Tim Bresnan into the covers.

Dravid was left stranded in the first innings and 10 minutes later was walking in again to resume India`s challenge in the second innings.

India were 25 for no loss at tea with Virender Sehwag showing some form for which he is known around the world. The Delhi dasher was unbeaten on 16 while Dravid was not out on seven at the break.

Dravid batted for 379 minutes and faced 266 balls for his unbeaten 146, hitting 20 fours in a magnificent effort even by his high standards. He became the fourth highest century maker in history during the knock and now only Sachin Tendulkar (51), Jacques Kallis (40) and Ricky Ponting (39) are ahead of him. He went past Sunil Gavaskar to become the second highest Indian century maker.

Alongwith Dravid`s magnificent resistance, no less praiseworthy was the rearguard action put up by India`s lower half of Amit Mishra (43), Gautam Gambhir (10) and RP Singh (25).

India resumed the afternoon session at 218 for six and lost Mishra immediately to a brilliant catch at forward short leg by Ian Bell off Bresnan. The little leg-spinner made 43 from 77 balls and resisted for nearly two hours, hitting six fours and a six.

Dravid and Mishra together put on 87 runs for the seventh wicket which could turn out to be a critical stand of the match in terms of overall result.

Gautam Gambhir, who did not open because of a concussion he suffered while fielding on the second day, came out to bat at number nine and hung around for 77 minutes, scoring 10 runs and frustrating England bowlers in the process.

Gambhir finally departed when he put his bat in front of his face to a rising delivery from Stuart Broad and was easily caught in the slip cordon.

India`s resistance was still not through as RP Singh made a few merry hits before he could not evade a rising delivery from Bresnan and was caught too in the slip region.

Sreesanth departed off the very next delivery to bring curtains on India`s first innings. India`s last four wickets yielded 173 runs though it must be said the Oval pitch became unusually slow as the day wore on.

For England, Bresnan and Swann finished with three wickets each while James Anderson and Stuart Broad shared the other four wickets.