The conditions at Lord’s have been dry since Day I of this third Test. The pitch, though, continues to have something in it for the bowlers.

Jasprit Bumrah proved so on Friday morning with his three-wicket burst. But fortunately for the Indians, Bumrah’s English counterparts weren’t as effective as him.

The crucial partnerships between KL Rahul-Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja-Nitish Kumar Reddy, and the England quicks’ inability to make an impact helped India equal the hosts’ first-innings total of 387. In fact, given the way Jadeja and Washington Sundar played during their critical 50-run seventh-wicket stand, India seemed well set to take a decent lead.

However, Chris Woakes finally had some luck despite a rather lacklustre bowling for most of the day, picking up Jadeja and Bumrah in quick succession as India’s last four wickets fell for only 16.

At stumps on Day III, England were 2/0 in their second innings. That lone over before the end of the day’s play injected some drama into the contest.

Zak Crawley, who faced the probing over from Bumrah, looked to resort to time-wasting tactics so that England didn’t have to face another over. That certainly didn’t amuse the Indians, particularly after Crawley called the physio to the field after being hit on the glove in the penultimate ball of the day.

Shubman Gill clapped, seeing Crawley call the physio, while a few words were also exchanged between the other India players and the England openers.

England will obviously be relieved not to have conceded a lead, but they certainly have their task cut out as the Indian bowling attack looks much more effective than that of the hosts.

Captain Ben Stokes did bowl with some penetration, especially in the post-Tea session on Saturday, and so did Jofra Archer with the second new ball. But only to an extent. Overall, the going wasn’t really too tough for India as the England bowlers erred in their lines and lengths, failing to force the Indian batsmen into making a mistake, even after India were 254/5 with centurion Rahul dismissed.

Of course, yet another quality hundred from Rahul (100) and his dominating 141-run partnership with Pant (74), who braved his left index finger injury to hit eight boundaries and two maximums, was massive in terms of taking the momentum away from England in the morning session. Thereafter, Jadeja’s stoic defence and his 72-run stand with young Reddy played a crucial role.

However, the vital moment of the day was Stokes’s direct hit to run Pant out on the stroke of Lunch. If not for the England skipper’s superb throw, India could well have been in the driving seat going into Sunday.