While a Lord’s ton still eludes Sachin, Prior scores a third

While legendary Tendulkar still has to wait for a century at Lord's after playing five Tests, England 'keeper notches up his third ton at the iconic venue

While a Lord's ton still eludes Sachin, Prior scores a third

While legendary Tendulkar still has to wait for a century at Lord's after playing five Tests, England 'keeper notches up his third ton at the iconic venue

England's Matt Prior celebrates his century at Lord's yesterday.
Pic/Getty Images

Matt Prior is far more fortunate than Sachin Tendulkar!

Yesterday, the No 7 batsman teamed up with tailender Stuart Broad to wipe out any chance of India ending up victorious in the landmark 100th Test against England.

After being set a daunting 458-run target, India were 80 for the loss of Abhinav Mukund's wicket at close on Day Four of the opening Test.

Prior carried out the rescue operations with diligence after Ishant Sharma reduced England to 107 for six (62 for five at one stage) and found a man with equal determination and guts in Broad, the very player who denied India from getting a sizeable first innings score with figures of four for 37.

Prior said England are in front but there is still a lot of hard work ahead. "There are a lot of runs in that wicket," Prior said. "I felt pretty nervous when I walked out today. I just wanted to keep things calm," he added.

Prior clubbed away. His unbeaten 103 was scored off 120 balls (5x4, 1x6) while Broad stayed unbeaten on 74 (90 balls, 9x4) before skipper Andrew Strauss declared England's second innings on 269 for six.

Ishant's ability to test the best came shining through yesterday under clear skies even as his supporters were left wondering why he couldn't be as threatening in the first innings when conditions suited swing bowling more.

First innings double centurion Kevin Pietersen's second innings hopes came crashing down when he was clueless to Ishant's snorter -- caught behind by Mahendra Singh Dhoni for one. New man Ian Bell was Ishant's next victim for a duck.

Catcher Dhoni and his mates celebrated fittingly for their third wicket in 10 balls. And when Jonathan Trott discovered his furniture was rattled with another piece of fine swing bowling, England knew that drawing first blood in this series won't be as easy as a pathologist's job.

But then, India displayed a familiar weakness of getting rid of the lower order. The regularity where this inability is concerned is near-inexplicable. Sure, Zaheer Khan was missed, but each of the frontline bowlers had enjoyed success on the day.

Dwelling too much on India's inability to dismiss any of the two lower order batsmen for 27 overs would be unfair to the pluck displayed by Prior and Broad. The duo added 162 without being separated.

India did not have the rub of the green. Apart from Sachin Tendulkar's viral infection, which will not allow him to bat at normal time, Gautam Gambhir's elbow injury while fielding close to the wicket will be detrimental to India's match-saving chances too.

With a massive-never-been-achieved-before target, India's best bet to save this Test appears to be a combination of the fickle English weather and the magical old firm of Dravid & Laxman.

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