Day 3 started with India relatively comfortable at 136/1, Dravid and Jaffer looking good. One man, Mathew Hoggard changed all that. He was getting the ball to swing and seam by putting in a huge effort. He first got Dravid lbw, though replays showed the ball was sliding down the leg side.  Dravid did not add anything to his overnight score. Then Jaffer edged one to second slip, Flintoff taking a low catch, making it look simple. Jaffer missed out on the opportunity to score a hundred on his comeback, dismissed on 81. Laxman was caught right in front of the stumps by an inswinger from hoggard, the first ball he faced. Suddenly India were in trouble at 149/4. Things got worse as runs were hard to come by for Tendulkar and he went into a shell. Then, debutant Monty Panesar had a dream first wicket, that of Tendulkar. Umpire Alim Dar has not shied away from giving pad-bat lbw decisions and he was consistent in that regard as a straightish delivery from Panesar struck Tendulkar's pad on its way to middle of his bat. Panesar's celebrations showed just how much this wicket meant to him.

MS Dhoni and Pathan have been the architects of many Indian victories in the past few months and India needed them to pull off something special here. It was not to be. Dhoni went for an over-ambitious drive outside the off-stump,  edging a Flintoff delivery to Jones. Hoggard, then picked up his fifth wicket as he got Pathan to drive outside the offstump only to edge it to second slip.The English bowlers had well and truly brought England back into the match.

Kumble then joined Kaif in the middle. Kumble is known to be one of the most  fierce competitors in the game and he showed just why he is associated with that tag today. Along with Kaif, who was under tremendous pressure to keep his place in the side, he brought some control over proceedings. The runs came slowly and the proceedings were slow, but this partnership was crucial for India to stay in the match. Both Kaif and Kumble were dropped when they were on Insignificant scores. They were tough chances which if held onto would've spelt doom for India. At the same time they took advantage of those opportunites given to them and added key runs to the score. Kaif looked strong off his legs and fluent on the cover drive. Kumble did a brilliant job of defending outside his off-stump and puttting away the lose balls. Both got to their 50s, but did not lose focus. Together they put on 128 runs, similar to what the Eng lower order did for their team. Just 3-4 overs before the end of day's play  Harmisson struck as he got Kumble to fianlly edge one to second slip. Kumble scored 58 off 168 balls with 10 boundaries. As it often happens after a big partnership, the other partner, Kaif also got out soon after Kumble. He played down the wrong line off a Panesar delivery that spun away after drifting in. These 2 wickets gave the advantage to England just as it looked that the match was even. The Indians ended the day at 322/9, not a very good performace but excellent considering they were 190/7 at one stage.

India v England, Day 3 Stumps - Nagpur

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