India steady with 60-run lead (Tea report)

India were looking steady at tea, batting at 84/1 in their second innings with a lead of 60 runs on Day 3 of the second Test against England at Lord's here Saturday.

India resumed the second session at 11 for no loss. Slowly but steadily they put on 73 more runs in 27 overs but lost the wicket of opener Shikhar Dhawan for 31.

The left hander was looking good as he drove four boundaries in his 45-ball known and kept the scoreboard ticking. He went for another on a short pitched delivery but was caught in brilliant fashion by Joe Root at point to be dismissed with the total at 40.

However, the other opener Murali Vijay (21 not out) and Cheteshwar Pujara (25 not out) the visitors went into the break without losing anymore wickets.

Ben Stokes (1/12) clinched the only wicket of Dhawan.

Earlier, an inspiring bowling performance from Bhuvneshwar Kumar led India to bowl out England for 319 before lunch.

Resuming the day at 219/6, the hosts put on 100 runs in 19.5 overs but lost their last four wickets in the morning session to go ahead of India's first innings total of 295.

Overnight batsman Liam Plunkett (55 not out) and wicketkeeper Matt Prior (23) successfully denied the Indian seamers any success in the first hour of the morning. However, Shami was finally successful in breaking the 51-run partnership when Prior top edged the ball and a backward running Dhawan brilliantly caught the ball.

Bhuvneshwar (6/82) then scalped two wickets in three deliveries to bring up his best bowling figures in Tests, surpassing his previous best and first five-wicket haul which he achieved in the last Test on a dead Trent Bridge pitch, which the ICC has rated as 'poor'.

Plunkett and James Anderson (19) made sure that the hosts took the lead with their 39-run last-wicket partnership before the latter gloved it to Ajinkya Rahane in the slips.

Uttar Pradesh's Bhuvneshwar became only the third Indian to pick up six wickets at the 'home of cricket' after Ladha Amar Singh (1936) and Bishan Singh Bedi (1974). After clinching first five, the Meerut-born also entered his name into Lord's honours board.

Bhuvneshwar has been the best bowler of the five-match series so far with 11 wickets, two more than all other Indian bowlers combined.