London, July 23: After missing out on a century by five runs on debut in 1996 at Lord’s, Rahul Dravid scored his first ton here, earning a mention in the famous honours board. The redoubtable batsman remained unbeaten on 103 runs at the close of the visitors’ innings (286 all out). If Dravid was the man for India on the day, Stuart Broad was the pick of the English bowlers. The pacer, who was under pressure at the start of the match to justify his place in the playing eleven, claimed four wickets, including that of an ominous-looking Sachin Tendulkar (34).

After bowling India out for 286 runs, England batted for five overs and five runs without losing a wicket. Although he came out to bat earlier, Zaheer Khan did not take the field. At the end of day’s play, England were leading by 193 runs.

Earlier, the left-handed Indian opening pair of Gautam Gambhir and Abhinav Mukund played patiently and looked set for a big partnership until Stuart Broad spoiled the party. Introduced into the attack in the 15th over, Broad took Gambhir’s off-stump to give England their first breakthrough, breaking the 63-run opening partnership in the 19th over. His next scalp was newcomer Mukund, out to an inside edge that went on to hit the stumps, who had till then played well for his 49 runs. Missing out on a well deserved half-century for the second time in a row, the young Karnataka batsmen walked backed disappointed after doing all the hard work (he was out on 48 runs in his previous innings – against West Indies).

The departure of Mukund brought the milestone man Sachin Tendulkar (34 runs) to the crease. His first boundary was a trademark back-foot punch off Chris Tremlett. Although conditions were a bit overcast making batting seem difficult, India had little to worry about with two of the best batsmen ever to play the game out in the middle. With Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar at the crease, India were placed at 102 runs for the loss of two wickets at lunch.

Tendulkar dispatched the first ball after lunch for a four off James Anderson. With Dravid and Sachin hitting a flurry of fours post lunch, Stuart Broad was brought back into the attack. The pacer got down to business immediately, sending back Sachin off the fourth ball of his first over with a full delivery outside the off stump; Graeme Swann took the catch at second slip.

Broad’s domination over the Indian batsmen continued; VVS Laxman, who replaced Sachin in the middle, was dropped by Strauss in the slips off the very first ball of his next over. On the last ball of the same over, Dravid was given a life by Graeme Swann, again, in the slips.

However, the life to Laxman (10 runs) did not cost England dearly as the batsman gifted a catch to Jonathan Trott off Tremlett a few overs later. And with Suresh Raina following him back to the pavilion, it was once again left to ‘The Wall’ to anchor the Indian innings.

As India lost wickets and England looked in control of proceedings during an eventful second session, Dravid overtook Ricky Ponting to become the second highest run-getter in Tests.

Dravid and MS Dhoni diligently added 57 runs to the Indian total until Tremlett dismissed the Indian skipper in his second over after the new ball was taken. A ball later, Harbhajan Singh too was sent back by the 29-year-old Hampshire pacer. The next to walk back was Praveen Kumar whose gutsy 17- run cameo was ended by Broad.

If the first half of the day belonged to Broad, Tremlett picked three wickets in the latter part. The final session saw James Anderson bring the Indian innings to end with the wickets of Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma.

Brief scores (At end of Day 3): England 1st innings 474/8 in 131.4 overs decl.(Kevin Pietersen 202, M Prior 71, Praveen Kumar 5/106), India 1st innings 286 all out in 95.5 overs (Rahul Dravid 103*, Abhinav Mukund 49, Stuart Broad 4/37, C Tremlett 3/80). England2nd innings 5/0 in 5 over (A Struas 3, A Cook 0)