England destroy Indian bowling on 3rd day of Lord's Test

The weather Gods were kind enough on the third day of the Lord's Test as there was bright sunshine almost throughout the day. Under bright sunshine, the pitch looked ideal for batting. as it had lost all its juice and did not offer any swing for the Indian pacers that was there yesterday when Anderson and Co. were bowling.

Indian opening bowlers were erratic in the first couple of overs but they soon found their groove and accounted for the departure of English openers in quick succession. Shami caught Jennings in front of the wicket with a ball tailing in. Ishant induced an edge from Cook with a ball shaping away.

Debutant Pope started off confidently but could not stay long and became Pandya's first victim. English skipper, Joe Root never looked confident in his laborious innings of 19 and was trapped LBW by Shami at the stroke of lunch. India had the upper hand going into lunch on Day 3.

Post lunch, pitch seemed to have further eased out as Buttler and Bairstow played freely and the innings run rate catapulted to over 4. England lost Buttler against the run of play. He was Shami's third victim.

Shami was the pick of Indian bowlers as he generated good pace and troubled the English batsmen. After the departure of Buttler, Woakes joined Bairstow in the middle. They milked the hapless Indian bowling attack which dearly missed a third frontline seamer.

Woakes scored a magnificent century which incidentally was his first hundred. They stitched together a partnership of 189 runs which took the game away from the Indians. Kuldeep Yadav had an unforgettable day in office as he had an economy of 4.89. Ashwin was no better as he was mostly ineffective owing to the pitch not offering any turn.

Later in the day, Bairstow played a loose shot and diving Karthik took a splendid catch to send him packing. Bad lights resulted in play being called off early but not before England had surmounted a lead of 250 runs in the first innings. India would need some divine intervention to claw back into this Test. Thunderstorms are expected on Day 4 which might provide some respite to the beleaguered Indians.