Dravid and Laxman consolidated Indian innings after the fall of Sehwag as both of them scored half centuries within first hour of play on third day and their accumalation of runs at a steady pace frustrated Pakistani Bowlers who indulged in sledging instead of trying to dislodge them by bowling good line and length .

Dravid and Laxman prevented any further loss of wickets by playing some steady slow cricket and India went to lunch at 231/1.

After lunch ,Indians were more cautious as both of them were nearing centuries and Laxman in this process tried to cut a delivery from Kaneria which was very close to his body and was caught brilliantly by wicketkeeper Akmal .


And Dravid soon followed him after scoring his century who was run out by direct hit from Imran Farhat at square leg and television replays clearly showed that Dravid would have been notout had he grounded his bat much before his crease as faliure to do this had cost an important wicket fot Indians at this crucial juncture.


Now days ,Tendulkar was past his prime as he was very uncomfortable against short pitch deliveries from Shoiab and his Co.


With Yuvraj Singh whose form in the past three matches had cost Saurav Ganguly his place in his team for this test match who came after the fall of Rahul Dravid was very much overaggressive and he got out by directly hooking Mohammed Asif straight into the hands of Danish Kaneria at Fineleg who took wonderfulcatch for dismissing him.

And with Tendulkar gloving a Shoaib Akthar delivery to Akmal,India were in dire straits as they were still adrift of 200 runs from Pakistan’s score with only five wickets remaining.


Then came Dhoni and Irfan Pathan whom had a testing time as both of them were treated with short pitched deliveries from Shoaib and Co and they added some quick runs as both of them were not hesitant to hook or pull short pitched deliveries which our top order batsmanhad failed to do ,soon Shoiab was taken off the attack and Danish Kaneria replaced him at the other end and Dhoni greated him with huge six over long on which went out of the stadium.


In that period ,India scored at more than five runs an over with Dhoni and Irfan Pathan clubbing five sixes of Danish Kaneria .MS dhoni Played beautifully as he was not afraid to pull and hook whenever he had a short pitched delivery as he went on to score his maiden hundred in Test cricket just for 93 balls which is also a record .At other end was Irfan Pathan who played a second fiddle to Dhoni .


And Pakistan are to blame themselves for allowing to India to come back into the match as they had missed catches for Dhoni and Irfan at fag end of the day.At stumps Indians were comfortably placed at 413/5 with Irfan and Dhoni unbeaten on 49 and114 respectively.