Harbhajan and Kumble open old wounds

India 628-8 dec England 264-9

England's jaunty summer of content was refashioned yesterday. In its place there emerged a shape which could threaten a long winter of ruination. It was like having a reunion with an old chum who seemed to have disappeared off the face off the earth but was actually round the corner all the time.

Insipid bowling by Nasser Hussain's team in the Third Test was followed by defective batting. On a pitch where India managed 628 runs in 180.1 overs for the loss of eight wickets – the first four of them for 584 – England replied with 264 for 9 in 85 overs. They still need 165 to avoid the follow-on. This from the side who had rattled up huge total after huge total as a matter of the 2002 routine.

India had three centurions, only two England players passed 50. Inevitably, Michael Vaughan was one of them and the other was Alec Stewart, who is still there after being dropped off his first ball.

The pitch remains sporting, as it has been from the first morning. India's two spinners, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, who are also the team's best bowlers, have already taken five wickets between them. They are not finished yet. Ajit Agarkar bowled a couple of fast spells, his inconsistency compensated for by moments of great incision.

England last went unbeaten through a Test summer in 1990 and in view of their form must have been privately optimistic of repeating the feat. Now, bar an immediate return to their hitherto serene ways, the series will reach the fourth and final match at The Oval standing at 1-1. It was always likely to be a grim struggle, but when the opposition have made a monumental score and finished by batting for fun, it would be unreasonable to expect much else. Such distant totals tend to disconcert teams to the pits of their stomachs as well as giving them two left feet.

Get off to a flyer and the follow-on target is still over the horizon and far away. Lose a wicket and it extends the gap. England's most fervent hope must have been that India bowled in a fashion similar to themselves, which was somewhere between drains and halfwits, while the surface ceased misbehaving. Both prayers were unfulfilled.

England had begun the third day of the match as they had ended the second: forlornly. True, four Indian wickets fell for the addition of 44 runs, including that of the incomparable Sachin Tendulkar. He was undone by one which kept low seven runs shorts of his third Test double-hundred having faced 330 balls. A fortnight ago it was being prognosticated that he was in decline and needed runs. Phooey. While England were glad enough of his departure, the manner of it will have made them fear for their future and recognise that there was unlikely to be much to it.

The previous four wickets had cost 540 runs more but the tourists were batting with the sort of freedom where the ball's merits had little connection to shot selection. Andrew Caddick had taken four wickets for 11 runs in 4.1 overs but his previous 37 overs had cost 139 for no return – not a sausage. More importantly, England also dropped four catches, bringing the total to six in the innings.

Two of them, three in all counting the dolly from Sourav Ganguly the previous evening, fell from the hands of Robert Key, playing his second Test. If he had not changed his life by cutting out the good times to make sure his career got this far, it would have been enough to turn a man to drink. John Crawley, failing to hold a mighty difficult running catch, and Matthew Hoggard were the other culpable parties. Somehow, it is comforting to know that when England get it wrong they do so spectacularly. They must significantly improve their bowling, their batting and their catching. It was a frantically entertaining opening 35 minutes. With Singh's eventual dismissal, Ganguly declared. It was India's highest total away from home.

The 75 minutes until lunch would be a severe test of Key's nature. He has naturally ruddy cheeks and the three drops, all from eminently catchable chances, can only have deepened the red. But now, as he went out to bat, the colour might have drained. Yet he and Michael Vaughan not only survived but did so with some aplomb.

Vaughan indeed was magisterial. What a sequence of shots he played: cover drives on one knee, leg-side flicks in which his wrists rolled round the ball à la Tendulkar. The Western Terrace knew they had a new hero.

The pitch was behaving itself but the effect of the roller would wear off. There had been bounce and turn before. It was important for the first wicket to go on. It had reached 67 when Key edged Zaheer Khan to second slip. As the ball slanted across him, the bat was not quite adjacent to his pad.

The news came from Taunton that Marcus Trescothick, out these past two Tests with a broken thumb, had been netting in earnest for the first time. He hopes to play in Somerset's Championship match at Blackpool on Tuesday, in the C&G Final at Lord's next Saturday and in the Fourth Test at The Oval. It is bad news for poor Key's immediate international future.

Mark Butcher did not truly settle. Before his knee operation two months ago he was in prime form, assertive and full of strokes and knowing when to play them. Maybe he has returned prematurely, maybe the break has somehow interrupted his flow. He played round a straight one from Anil Kumble and nobody was surprised. At Old Trafford in June when he made 123 we should have been shocked.

Vaughan's sails were trimmed by better field settings and Kumble's skill. The belief that he would make a third consecutive hundred ebbed slightly. He was on 61 when he edged Agarkar behind. Parthiv Patil gloved it to his right and Laxman dropped the rebound. Vaughan has ridden these slices of fortune before this summer, so this was a wonderful portent. On this occasion it lasted for precisely one ball. To Agarkar's next delivery he proferred an uncharacteristically limp drive which went directly to cover.

After an early tea caused by a rain break, Hussain was leg before to Zaheer to one that might have gone over the top. Or might not. Stewart pushed at his first ball. The ball went low to third slip where Sanjay Bangar grassed it. They had been watching England for too long and for once England were grateful.

But their fielding labours continued to tell as they came and went, Andrew Flintoff to his first ball. Although Ashley Giles helped Stewart add 70 he, too, was leg before. England have 11 wickets left. They must treasure each of them. Australia, the winter's opponents, must have liked what they saw. So, of more immediate importance, did India.

npower Test scoreboard

Third day; India won toss

India
S B Bangar c Stewart b Flintoff 68
V Sehwag c Flintoff b Hoggard 8
R Dravid st Stewart b Giles 148
S R Tendulkar lbw b Caddick 193
S C Ganguly b Tudor 128
V V S Laxman c Hussain b Tudor 6
A B Agarkar b Caddick 2
P A Patel not out 7
Harbhajan Singh c Hoggard b Caddick 18
Extras (b14 lb13 w5 nb18) 50
Total (for 8 dec) 628

Fall: 1-15 (Sehwag), 2-185 (Bangar), 3-335 (Dravid), 4-584 (Ganguly), 5-596 (Tendulkar), 6-602 (Agarkar), 7-604 (Laxman), 8-628 (Harbhajan Singh).

Did not bat: Zaheer Khan, A Kumble.

Bowling: Hoggard 36-12-102-1 (nb4), Caddick 40.1-5-150-3 (nb8), Tudor 36-10-146-2 (nb4) , Flintoff 27-6-68-1 (nb2, w5), Giles 39-3-134-1, Butcher 1-1-0-0, Vaughan 1-0-1-0 .

England
R W T Key c Laxman b Zaheer Khan 30
M P Vaughan c Sehwag b Agarkar 61
M A Butcher lbw b Kumble 16
N Hussain lbw b Zaheer Khan 25
J P Crawley c Laxman b Harbhajan Singh 13
A J Stewart not out 71
A Flintoff lbw b Harbhajan Singh 0
A J Tudor c Sehwag b Agarkar 1
A F Giles lbw b Kumble 25
A R Caddick b Harbhajan Singh 1
M J Hoggard not out 0
Extras (b1, lb10, nb10) 21
Total (for 9, 349 min, 85 overs) 264

Fall: 1-67 (Key), 2-109 (Butcher), 3-130 (Vaughan), 4-140 (Hussain), 5-164 (Crawley), 6-164 (Flintoff), 7-185 (Tudor), 8-255 (Giles), 9-258 (Caddick).

Bowling: Zaheer Khan 19-3-59-2 (nb2) (6-2-20-0 5-0-12-1 5-1-14-1 3-0-13-0); Agarkar 15-4-59-2 (nb2) (4-1-22-0 8-3-18-1 3-0-19-1); Bangar 4-1-9-0 (nb1) (3-1-3-0 1-0-6-0); Kumble 31-7-87-2 (nb5) (21-3-62-1 3-1-9-0 3-2-5-0 4-1-11-1); Harbhajan Singh 16-5-39-3 (2-2-0-0 12-3-37-2 2-0-2-1).

Progress: Third day: 50: 61 min, 14.4 overs. Lunch: 61-0 (Key 24, Vaughan 35) 19 overs. 100: 121 min, 30 overs. Rain stopped play 3.26-4.27pm – tea taken 135-3 (Hussain 20, Crawley 0) 44 overs. 150: 217 min, 53.2 overs. 200: 277 min, 67.3 overs. 250: 320 min, 78.2 overs.

Vaughan's 50: 121 min, 78 balls, 8 fours. Stewart's 50: 118 min, 82 balls, 7 fours.

Umpires: E A R de Silva and D L Orchard. TV replay umpire: P Willey. Referee: C H Lloyd.