da leao： Dileep Premachandran comes up with the plays of the third day of the Lord’s Test between England and India

da betsul： Dileep Premachandran21-Jul-2007

James Anderson got the wickets of India’s big three – Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar,and Sourav Ganguly © Getty Images
Thrice as nice: Having scalped Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar onFriday, James Anderson completed a golden triangle of sorts with amagnificent delivery to Sourav Ganguly. Pitched outside his off stump, itswung late and crashed into off and middle. The five-for should breathelife into a career that’s promised much and delivered very little so far.Temper temper: With India struggling to breakthrough in the secondinnings, Sreesanth’s frustration boiled over and a wayward shy at thestumps struck Andrew Strauss flush on the back of the thigh. As he ran infor the next ball, Strauss backed away, and Sreesanth ran down thepitch to mouth ‘Sorry’ before going back to his mark. And after the finalrain delay, he emerged from the pavilion practising his left-arm action.Never a dull moment and all that.Catching practice: Having already steered one delivery in thedirection of the slip cordon, Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s quest for perfectionresulted in the deftest of slaps into the hands of Ian Bell at third slip.An appalling shot in a finely poised match, and Dhoni’s day didn’t improvewith some clumsy takes behind the stumps. When he did finally manage togather one down the leg side, he turned and bowed to the ground – showingan ability to smile even as his world and a dozen ad campaigns crumbledaround him.That’s how it’s done, boys: When Chris Tremlett pitched one alittle too full, India’s nightwatchman leant forward and executed apolished off-drive. Rudra Pratap Singh stuck around 40 balls for his 17.Not bad for a man with a first-class average of 9.22, and an indictment ofsome celebrated colleagues who could barely put bat to ball.Simply the best: As the hype was stripped bareyet again, Michael Holding was asked how this Indian line-up compared tothe all-conquering West Indians of 1984, the team of Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Larry Gomes, Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd. He smiled diplomatically and said: “They haven’t really lived up to the reputation, have they?Especially not away from home.” The numbers may be twisted to say allsorts of things, but in reality, there’s no comparison. This Indianline-up couldn’t even dream of scoring 342 for victory on the finalday of a Lord’s Test, and in 66.1 overs at that.Rest-room graffiti: Lord’s is too polite for there to bespray-painted messages in the toilet, but next to the wash basins, thereare small placards with quotes on the game. The best one comes from PaulHogan, who played Crocodile Dundee in the cult movie. “Cricket needs a bitof brightening up,” he says. “My solution is to let the players drinkbefore the game, and not after. It works in our picnic matches.”