Dravid hundred leads India's resistance

Lunch India 218 for 6 (Dravid 109*, Mishra 38*) trail England 591 for 6 dec by 373 runs
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	Rahul Dravid continued his outstanding innings to finally make England work for their success © Getty Images Enlarge
Related Links Matches: England v India at The Oval Series/Tournaments: India tour of England Teams: England | India

Rahul Dravid continued to be the one major obstacle between England and enforcing the follow-on at The Oval as he reached his third hundred of the series. Amid a hapless effort from the rest of the top order, Dravid stood alone with a supreme innings. He eventually found some support from Amit Mishra, as the pair added an unbeaten 81 for the eighth wicket, but India still trailed by a massive 373 at lunch.

Dravid's progress to three figures wasn't without alarm, he offered England two chances to run him out. The closest came on 61, when there was confusion between him and MS Dhoni as Ravi Bopara misfielded at cover, but Kevin Pietersen couldn't hit the stumps. Then Stuart Broad had a shy from mid-off when Dravid sprinted for his 99th run and had to dive.

A blow on the bottom hand from Tim Bresnan caused Dravid pain, but two balls later he steered the same bowler towards third man to bring up his century from 168 deliveries. The most enthralling aspect of the innings was his contest with Graeme Swann, which went hands down to the batsman. Dravid had moved through the 90s with three boundaries off Swann; a rare slog-sweep, a late cut and a flick through midwicket.

The expectation had been that Swann would cause more damage to India's line-up after his three wickets on the previous evening but further success proved elusive. Both Dravid and Dhoni played him in different styles: Dravid off the back foot and Dhoni with the sweep or a lunge forward.

The one breakthrough went to James Anderson, who was rewarded for some probing outswing when he found Dhoni's edge to leave India on 137 for 6. Gautam Gambhir, still struggling with his concussion, dropped further down the order, but Mishra provided Dravid with excellent support. Mishra showed more gumption that some of the top-order batsmen as he played sensibly and with the occasional flourish.

Bresnan bowled a testing pre-lunch spell from the Pavilion End as he still managed to find conventional swing with a ball 60 overs old. Beating Mishra's outside edge with movement is one thing, but making Dravid - unbeaten with a hundred - uncertain showed the quality of some of the deliveries.

For once, though, the wickets didn't arrive and India went past 200 when Mishra collected consecutive boundaries off Kevin Pietersen, and then finished the session by launching Swann over midwicket for six. This was the fight everyone had asked for.