England’s Kevin Pietersen (left) returns to the crease to await the verdict of the third umpire during the second day of the first Test against India at Lord’s yesterday. After a TV replay, the third umpire decided that Pietersen was not out. He went on to make 34. - AP

LONDON (Reuters):

ENGLAND CLAIMED the wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Wasim Jaffer in the final session on the second day of the first Test at Lord’s yesterday to take a slight advantage in the match with a lead of 153 runs.

After earlier collapsing to 298, despite resuming on 268 for four, England recovered with the wickets of Dinesh Karthik, India captain Rahul Dravid, Tendulkar and Jaffer to limit the tourists to 145 for four at stumps.

Sourav Ganguly is 25 not out and was joined by nightwatchman Rudra Pratap Singh (five).

Ganguly, who made 136 on his Test debut at Lord’s 11 years ago, might have also perished when he cut Chris Tremlett through gully for four as Ian Bell failed to take a difficult chance.

The day began three hours late because of rain after an admirable effort by groundstaff following a monsoon-like deluge.

The patient crowd was compensated for the loss with an exciting spectacle as 10 wickets fell on the day.

India began shakily as Karthik succumbed for five when Ryan Sidebottom had him lbw and Dravid edged James Anderson to Matt Prior after the wicketkeeper earlier dropped a straightforward chance from Jaffer when he was on nought. The fall of Tendulkar, though, after his 79-run stand with Jaffer, created the usual animated celebration that routinely greets his dismissal.

He was out for 37 after playing a loose stroke to a ball from Anderson that came into him, rather than the usual away-swinger.

Tendulkar, who embarked on his first Test tour of England in 1990, is still without a Test or one-day international century at Lord’s.

However, he did surpass Steve Waugh’s tally of 10,927 Test runs to become the third-highest run scorer, trailing only Brian Lara (11,912) and Allan Border (11,174), who have retired.

Jaffer fell shortly before stumps on 58 after offering a return diving catch off a short ball from six-foot-seven debutant Tremlett.