IND vs ENG, 3rd Test Match, Day 3: Rahul, Pant Steer India to Parity at Lord’s

Published after stumps at Lord’s, this special edition of #MidMatchMemo offers a full match report — capturing every twist, turn and talking point from Day 3 of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.

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AT THE HALFWAY MARK, the 2025 edition of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy could barely be more evenly poised with a mere two runs separating India and England, who are tied at one match apiece so far. Both teams finished on 387 in their respective first innings, and there’s all to play for in the two remaining days of the Test. Starting the third session of the day at 316/5, India would’ve hoped to power on to at least 425 by stumps on Saturday. Unfortunately for the visitors and despite handy partnerships between Ravindra Jadeja and Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Jadeja and Washington Sundar, they ended up losing four wickets for 11 runs.

England were made to play out a single over at the very end, and negotiated it peacefully enough, but with plenty of drama. In a bid to ensure they had to bat as little as possible at the end of the day, the home team managed to get under the skin of the visitors by dilly-dallying throughout Jasprit Bumrah’s only over of the day. It left the Indian team, led by skipper Shubman Gill, unleashing enraged volleys of (possible) expletives and petulant behaviour at the batters. But the spectre of time-wasting had been hanging over this Test for a while.

From starting as minor disruptions to transforming into a massive waste of everyone’s time, all the minutes spent messing around with replacement balls has cost the Test a fair amount on the clock. On average, a day of Test cricket should see 90 overs bowled, give or take a couple here and there. What the Lord’s Test has managed has been quite abysmal: Day 1 saw 83 overs, Day 2 saw a meagre 72 and on Day 3 we got 77 of them. Sadly, it appeared that managing the chaos around the balls got away from the umpires, who seemed unable to manage the teams and their incessant gripes about the ball. By the time the match is over, the teams will have cumulatively gone through a record number of balls. Regardless, as it stands, the stage is set for a cracking two days ahead with plenty of drama ahead.

Earlier in the day, the 73rd over of the Indian innings saw an absolute masterclass of pace bowling from Jofra Archer to Reddy, who hadn’t been out in the middle for very long. Propelled by gazelle-like strides, Archer (who is playing his first Test in over four years) spewed raw, fiery speed. In a six-ball burst, he embodied everything Ricky Bobby (of Talladega Nights fame) professed to stand for: “Speed. Hot, nasty badass speed”.

Reddy negotiated the fireballs well enough, but it was hard to look past the fact that Archer may probably have had a bit more reward for his efforts had he been on target. As it turned out, this was a false dawn, because the Archer who took the second new ball was wayward and wasteful with all that speed. And along with the wicket of Sundar, his fiery 90-plus-mph over would end up being the only thing he really had to celebrate all day.

With the battle temporarily won, Reddy proceeded to buckle down in the company of Jadeja. The pair came together at the fall of KL Rahul’s wicket, falling as he did to a loose drive off Shoaib Bashir shortly after compiling an eyecatching ton — his second at Lord’s. With two new batters at the crease, England would’ve hoped to pick up another wicket or two. But unfortunately for them, the Reddy-Jadeja pair was in the mood for some obdurate consolidation. And with the exception of a handful of run-out opportunities the duo was happy to throw the hosts’ way, a mostly chanceless 62-run partnership saw them shepherd the Indian innings to within 71 runs of England’s first-innings display by tea time.

Having started the day on a comfortable 145/3 with the pleasant surprise of Rishabh Pant (considering his finger injury) batting alongside Rahul, India would’ve expected a great day with the bat. Sun beating down, not a cloud in the sky and a relatively slow pitch meant it would’ve taken a pretty special effort from England to knock over the visiting batters cheaply. The hosts would’ve been grateful however that they weren’t facing down series top-scorer Gill, who had been accounted for by Chris Woakes on Friday evening for a mere 16 — well below the Indian skipper’s current standard.

While Rahul played what pundits would describe as his ‘natural game’, the Indian wicketkeeper was forced into an injury-induced adaptation of his batting. Made to eschew his usual extravagant hitting, this might be the first time the world-at-large was witness to a more circumspect Pant. In playing safer shots, he allowed Rahul to take more risks, and by lunch, the duo had piled on a sizable partnership of 141 runs.

The England bowling attack, meanwhile, appeared to be having one of their off-days. Listless, bereft of ideas apart from plonking down the odd short bowl, and seemingly going through the motions, there seemed little the hosts would be able to do to keep their opponents from amassing a gargantuan total. And when the breakthrough came (at the stroke of lunch, as is the way with this series), it was due to a piece of individual brilliance in the field. A Ben Stokes off-balance throw caught Pant short of his ground after he set off for a rather optimistic single. It’s worth noting that the wicketkeeper did not return to the field for England’s only over of the day, with Dhruv Jurel donning the gloves. Whether or not Pant returns on Sunday remains to be seen, and will be one of the intriguing story arcs of this Lord’s Test.

Karan Pradhan is editor-in-chief of Story Mode, a gaming and gaming-adjacent magazine. Follow him on X/Twitter @karanpradhan_