Credit: BCCI
In the afternoon session on day three of the third Test in the five-match series, which is being played for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, KL Rahul, the Indian opener, scored the 10th Test century of his career against England at Lord’s in London. The right-hander batter brought up his milestone in 176 balls after taking a single on the bowling of Jofra Archer at the cover region, and it was his second Test century at the home of cricket to a rousing reception of everyone watching it in person.
After England posted a competitive total of 387 runs on the board in their first innings prior to getting bowled out in the second session on day two, KL Rahul had a huge responsibility of not only playing out the new Dukes ball against the fresh English pacers, but also continuing his rich vein of form in the Test series. While his opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal got dismissed quite early, Rahul shared a 61-run stand for the second wicket with Karun Nair, to stabilise the Indian first innings.
KL Rahul shared 141-run stand for fourth wicket with Rishabh Pant to give India the ascendancy in Lord's Test
Following that, KL Rahul controlled the proceedings alongside his captain Shubman Gill for quite some time before the latter lost his wicket against the run of play for a rare low score in the Test series. With the arrival of Rishabh Pant at the crease, the Indian batting effort got some much needed impetus, while Rahul stood his ground and kept on building his innings before reaching his fifty towards the end of day two, and continued the good work in the first session on day three.
But, Rishabh Pant ran himself out in the last over before lunch break, apparently in his attempt to give KL Rahul the strike, who was on 98* at the time, to complete his hundred. Ben Stokes, the captain of England, found a direct hit when Pant wasn’t expecting the throw to be aimed at him at the non-striker’s end, to break the 141-run partnership, bringing his team back into the contest.
At the start of the second session on day three, KL Rahul didn’t take much time to go to three figures, but on the very next ball he faced from Shoaib Bashir, the right-hander edged it straight to Harry Brook at first slip, ending the innings on 100 runs in 177 balls with 13 fours to his name.
