England bowled India out for 201 but were frustrated by rain for much of the third day of the first Test at Lord's.

India lost their last six wickets for 46 runs before lunch as James Anderson took 5-42 and Ryan Sidebottom claimed 4-65, giving England a lead of 97.

After a rain delay of nearly two hours, Zaheer Khan removed Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook to leave England 54-2 when it rained again and tea was taken.

Two more hours were lost but England were 77-2 at the close, 174 ahead.

e-mail tms@bbc.co.uk (with 'For Tom Fordyce' in the subject) or use 606

By Tom Fordyce

1929: Eng 77-2
England have survived, and that's stumps. Vaughan helped himself to another clipped four at the death, and the lead is 174 with eight wickets in hand. Funny old day - but when you sift through it all, we've got a very useful Test on the go here.

I'm off to snatch a few hours' sleep before I stagger out of the sack on Sunday morning at 0400. Why? Ah-ha - all will be explained in the morrow...

From Mark in Sussex: "As the man who gave Sarah of Canterbury sound, if ignored, advice during her recent crisis over the sexual identity of her goldfish (see previous TMS live texts), I feel obliged to tell her that no visa is necessary for Switxerland. Stop prevaricating, and get yerself on that plane, woman. Do what has to be done."

1925: Eng 72-2
Dravid throws RP the tarnished cherry, and KP picks up another grateful single. One more over? The England pair meet for a long and lively discussion in the middle of the strip.

1921: Eng 71-2
Vaughan jabs down on a Zaheer in-swinger and edges a one-bouncer to third slip. Deep breaths on the England balcony. He then leans delightfully into a fuller one and creams it in the narrow alley between bowler and mid-off for a dreamy four.

From Pete G in Victoria: "As I understand it, any sharks in the team prefer deep fine leg."

1916: Eng 67-2
KP's living dangerously here - he just manages to get a skinny inside edge onto a Sree pad-thwacker to stifle the lbw yells, and then jabs one gratefully towards midwicket to pick up a double.

From Mark Cage: "Surely the use of the flipper is outlawed when it comes to dolphins?"

1912: Eng 65-2
Zaheer tightens it up again with a maiden. Vaughan's doing his jutting-jaw captain-on-the-bridge face.

1908: Eng 65-2
Vaughan clips Sree off his legs to deep square leg to ease the pressure a fraction. Dhoni then tumbles to take an acrobatic pouch behind the bails to screams of delight from a scattering of young ladies in the near-empty stands.

1904: Eng 60-2
Whoosh - escape for KP as he lunges at pitched-up one from Zaheer and gets a thick edge straight through fourth slip - one ball after fourth slip's gone into the covers. Late drama can't be ruled out here...

From Sarah in Canterbury: "I apologise for my silence today, Tom. It's nothing personal. Neither is it down to that nasty man masquerading as an agent in a malicious attempt to prevent Bill and I rebuilding our shattered relationship through the medium of your clockwatch. I have, in fact, been to sort out my Swiss visa, Bill sit tight, I'm coming to get you."

1859: Eng 56-2
KP squirts one away down to fine leg off his pad to get off strike. Long shadows reach across the outfield - I reckon we'll be good through to 1930 now.

1855: Eng 54-2
Perfect this for India - a little half-an-hour, nothing-to-lose joust. England don't look half as keen, and KP and Michael Vaughan stare up the heavens pointedly as they trudge out. Zaheer runs one across KP, and hearts are in mouths.

1835: News from the inspection - they're going to have another go, in about 20 minutes. There's no-one left at the ground to watch it, but there you go. You've gotta love cricket...

1815: Right - they're going to have another inspection in about 20 minutes. And if we're not playing by 1900, it's all off for the day. Thoughts turn to what might be left in the cupboard for tea tonight - apart from the usual dried pasta, Marmite and token clove of garlic.

1805: To ironic cheers, the sun comes out. It's all happening here. Covers still on, urgent conflab between umpires and groundstaff in the middle.

From Peter in Portland: "Concerning dolphins, the normal rules for substitute fielders apply. Since substitute dolphins are not allowed to bowl or keep wicket, they usually patrol the outfield: deep midwicket, deep extra cover."

1750: Spitting turned to solid stuff. The stands have emptied, the covers are on, and there's nothing going on but the rent.

1737: No-one likes to be the bowler of bad news, but that 1745 start now looks supa-optimistic - it's starting to spit, and the covers are being slowly dragged back on. Woe is us - it's looking grim up above...

1715: Covers on, rain ceasing, re-start due at 1745.

From Laurie in Tunbridge: "What are the rules about dolphins in the outfield? Do you get five runs if the ball hits them, as with a helmet?"

1646: Eng 54-2 - RAIN STOPS PLAY - TEA TAKEN
England needed that - fat drops begin to splatter, and off they trot. They'll take an early tea too. Time for a courtesy break here.

1643: Eng 50-2
Another maiden from Arpy, and Vaughan is mighty lucky to survive a huge ell bee shout - the ball crashes into his front pad from left arm around and the entire Indian XI go up - only for Taufel to turn it down after a long, long thunk.

From Tim Allen: "Hear you have had a few weather problems. Out here in Barbados we've had the odd shower, but beards still impractical."

1639: Eng 50-2
Vaughan fends a Zaheer lifter off his nose with a swatting glove and picks up a lucky aerial two past Dhoni. KP is getting one of two balls at the mo - either a short one, which they're hoping he'll hook down deep square leg's throat a la Windies, or a zippy one angled across him. He's not enjoying the smell of either.

1632: Eng 47-2
Serious stuff here for England - RP angles one across KP, beats his outside edge and then does the same to his inside edge. Vaughan's been in 26 minutes and hasn't got off the squeak yet. Anxious times.

1627: Eng 45-2
Zaheer does the same to Vaughan as England struggle to get their momentum going again. Marbled grey clouds now almost overhead.

1622: Eng 45-2
RP Singh on for Sree, and he trundles a maiden past KP. Enormo grey clouds lumber into view above the Mound Stand.

From Gary Mills-Thomas: "Nice images of dolphins in the outfield - we are sitting in the Maldives watching real dolphins drift past the bar in the evening sun light."

1614: WICKET - Cook lbw Zaheer 17, Eng 43-2
Two in two overs for Zaheer, and India are fighting back here - it's the in-dipper this time, and Cook is trapped only half forward. Umpo Bucknor took an age to give that, too - you almost thought Cook had got away with it, but Bucks does love to tease.

1608: WICKET - Strauss c Tendulkar b Zaheer 18, Eng 40-1
That was coming - Zaheer nips one away from Strauss, the England man is suckered into a heavy-handed push and Tendulkar hangs on in front of his face at first slip.

From Giles Palmer: "Back in the day when I was experimenting with facial hair, taking the well-worn path from the full to the extended goatee, the regular goatee, through the Ming and the Flashman to the Hitler, my wife, whist suffering throughout with intense nasal itching, decided to help me though my charade, and created a mood board of me sporting all the popular models so I could choose my best fit. On reflection, I think this could be a rich vein of additonal income for her, so if you email her your picture, for a reasonable fee she'll do the same for you too."

1603: Eng 39-0
Celeb-spots in the crowd - Parkinson (obviously) with Sir Trevor McDonald, the latter gesticulating furiously with a jabbing finger; Dickie Bird absorbed in chat with a mate with enormous white eyebrows; and Shaun Edwards in a denim jacket in the cheaper seats. The rain holds off.

1558: Eng 36-0
Uh-oh - few rain-drops in the air again. Single for Cook off Zaheer. Brollies sprout like multi-coloured mushrooms in the stands.

1553: Eng 35-0
Lovely scenes here - Strauss drives Sree back to the bowler, who has a showy shy at the stumps and sends the ball crashing into Strauss's unprotected rump. Clearly far from happy, the England man waits until Sree is virtually at the stumps for his next delivery and then steps away, making vague comments about "something behind the bowler's arm". Sree, fuming, comes tearing in again and is creamed through cover for a lip-smacker of a four. Joy unconfined in the stands.

1549: Eng 31-0
That's more like it from Strauss - a back-foot crunch which was very much of the South Africa tour 2005 vintage. After four byes whistled down leg, Strauss strides through for a single - up until now, all the runs scored have come from boundaries. Apart from a two. Which rather makes the previous sentence a touch pointless.

1545: Eng 22-0
Rock-solid from Cook, waiting for a slinger from Sree and slapping it square for a delightful four.

From Richard Rosser: "I think your pal Ford could do worse than adopt the full �BlackBeard�, complete with ribbons. This is enormously silly and always an icebreaker at parties. It also has added bonus of sparking off a fascinating discussion with the ladies about haberdashery and where to get ribbons."

1540: Eng 18-0
Dicey times for Strauss, with Zaheer offering him all sorts of juicy tantalisers outside off. Eventually he has a pop, getting a thick edge off a slicey drive past gully once again. Still swinging across the line when he has a go, Straussy - it's not all butterflies and roses out there.

1535: Eng 12-0
Maiden from Sree, finding a touch of bounce outside Cookie's off-stump but keeping it too wide to stir up concern.

From Daniel in Guildford: "'Du har lika vackra som en ros' - 'you are beautiful like a rose'. Swedish. Also available in Nowegian, Danish, French, Italian, Spanish and Russian. Surprisingly useful."

1530: Eng 12-0
Zaheer continues to Strauss, who gets lucky with a flash outside off that whistles in the air past gully's right hand. Only Mr Tickle could have caught that.

From Paul Wheatley: "One last word on the beard issue - checking with Ford's golfing colleagues at the Open it appears Miguel Angel Jimenez is facing beard-related issues of his own. With matching beards of matching colour, perhaps they could join an alliance with the Beard Liberation Front - come to think of it, has anyone seen Ford and Jimenez in the same room together?"

1520: Covers off, sunshine out. Stretch your legs, fulfil any late beverage requests and we'll be off again shortish.

1505: What's that? Ah-ha - play will restart at 1530.

From Adrian: "if he's having big problems eating soup, then may I suggest he shave it into the shape of a spoon - or maybe a straw."

1458: The outer covers are being dragged off - we're nearly there. Umpire Bucks practises a stodgy forward defensive with his furled brolly.

From Paul Unseld: "Careful now Dicey, shaving off the mouth area of your beard would negate the possibilty of a Hitler moustache just before final removal - a decision you would definitely regret."

1450: Here's the other beard dilemma. The hair on my - I mean, Ford Tomdyce's - face is, how can I put this, a shade or two lighter than the hair on his head. Quite a few shades lighter. I'd never use the words "burnished copper", but... hmm.

From Richard Stanton: "There's always the Brian Blessed. Quite a fun one for fancy-dress parties - spray it grey, paint yourself blue and you're Papa Smurf in an instant."

1444: Strange post-rain hiatus here - brollies down, covers on, zero on-pitch activity.

From Bob at the London Underground Customer Service Centre: "As a beard-wearer, I recommend a Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon (as sported by Max Von Sydow in 1980s classic movie). But NEVER a Frank Zappa soul patch - that's bad."

From Jamie in Cardiff: "I Think Tomdyce should opt for the lesser-seen reverse-goate. Just shave off the hair surrounding the mouth and chin - this way you get to keep the beardiness, and there should be no problem with the consumption of soup or any other liquid-based food stuffs."

1436: Covers still on, but it's looking a tad brighter out over the Mound Stand.

From Russell Plunkett: "As a beard wearer myself, I can suggest hanging in there. If the decision is already final, then may I suggest a 'Lincoln-style' underbeard. Timeless classic."

From Jeremy in Oxford: "I think the whole subject of facial topiary depends upon the patterns of growth and colour on your friend Ford's jaw. However, removing the central chin area to leave a Mexitache always has great entertainment value."

1423: Minimal rain. We're on our way.

From Dan Jay: "Tom - I mean Ford - any chance you can shape tiny letters in your beard to spell the phrase 'If you can read this, you're too close'?"

From William Bradley: "How about shaving your beard along the chin into three stumps and the bails across the top?"

1415: The rain is easing. A fraction. Hold tight.

From Richard Stanton: "I've been the proud owner of similar beardage and have found the 'Dr Green' to be quite appealing. I call it the Dr Green as it makes me look like Anthony Edwards' character from E.R. The ladies seem to go for it and I've never had trouble with the consumption of soup."

From Alan in Cardiff: "Phrases in Malay/Indonesian: 'Selamat pagi, kawan ku' = 'good morning, my friend' - but maybe you want 'hujan, hujan, pergilah' = 'rain, rain, go away'."

1400: Right - while it's raining, a little question for you. If a chap - let's call him Ford Tomdyce - had recently been growing a semblance of a beard, was rapidly growing tired of it (itchiness, unfamiliarity, problems eating soup etc) but wanted to fashion it into a stupid shape to amuse his colleagues, what sort of styles might you suggest?

From Rob in New York: "How remiss! Here we are hosting India and no-one so far has shown the slightest interest in saying 'good day!' in all 400-odd Indian languages and its 2000-odd dialects. I'll start you off with 'Namaste' (Hindi), 'Julay!' (Ladakhi), and 'Vannakkum' (Tamil) but then you're on your own."

1344:Hmmm. It's now raining quite heavily. But after the Miracle Of Lords on Friday, when play resumed mere seconds after dolphins were seen cavorting in the waves breaking on the pavillion steps, who can say that we won't be back on in the blink of an eye?

1335: Bad news, mes braves - grim-looking clouds have gathered over the home of cricket, and the resumption has been delayed. From Johnny: "To carry on with your European languages theme, here's the Portuguese version. 'Bom dia meu amigo/minha amiga (for a lovely lady). Catching up on what I missed during an early morning surf here in Florianopolis, Brazil."

1259: Eng 8-0
That was easy enough - Cook tucks in to two leggish full ones from Santh and tickles one to fine leg and the other through square, and Taufs signals tucker-time. Super session for England. Back with you in 39-ish minutes - stay special.

From Peter Ganesh: "For the afternoon session, try Esperanto: 'Bona Posttagmezo'."

1254: Eng 0-0
Zaheer bounds in, and delivers an over as unthreatening as an episode of The Darling Buds Of May. Strauss sits tight.

From John Leung in Calgary: "Tom - if you are looking to impress your Chinese audience, may I suggest Mandarin ('da jia jiao, huan ying gwang lin') or Cantonese ('Gwok wai jo sun')."

1248: Righty - England will now face a cheeky eight minutes or so at the crease before lunch. In the old days, they'd be guaranteed to lose a wicket to ruin everyone's appetite. And now? How much faith do we have?

From Marcus in Novovolynsk, Ukraine: "'Dobry den, meni druzi' if you want to catch some Ukrainian beauties sweltering in the 38 degree heatwave here."

1240: WICKET - Zaheer c Strauss b Anderson 7, India 201 all out
Jim does the honours, banging one in against Zaheer and inducing a frantic glove to first slip. Anderson finishes with 5-42, his best ever Test figures, and that's the best all-round England bowling performance since the halcyon days of two summers ago. Jimmy bowled unchanged all morning, apart from switching ends, and he leads the team off with a huge beamer on his Lancashire chops.

1236: WICKET - Laxman c Prior b Sidebottom 15, India 197-9
The big kahuna's gone, as England's bang-on bowling delivers once again - Siders slides one across Laxman after two in-dippers and the yelling Prior bags a straightforward pouch. Happiness smeared all over the England players' faces - they're skipping around like carefree schoolgirls out there.

1235: India 196-8
Zaheer Khan in, and VVS takes a single of Anderson asap to leave his junior partner facing the music. Zaheer, badly out of tune, hangs on.

From Namgyal from Caldicot: "How about 'Tashi delegs', if you fancy impressing a Tibetan?"

1227: WICKET - Kumble lbw Sidebottom 11, India 192-8
Big in-swinger, biggish stride forward, huge appeal - and he's gone! Great decision from Simon Taufel, that - replays show that the ball would have hit close to the top of middle, regardless of how far down the track Kumble's shin was.

1224: India 192-7
Laxman flips Siders down to fine leg for a single, and then has to hurry to stop a trademark in-dipper sliding in between pad and bat. It could have have been duck pate, of course, or even Ardennes.

From David in London: "'Bore da i fy frindiau' would make Simon Jones proud."

1219: India 190-7
Laxman pushes Siders casually for three, and a large man on the front row of the Mound Stand spreads an unidentified meat pate onto a slice of baguette. From the colour of said pate, I'd gamble on it being chicken-liver.

From Luke in Putney: "Tom - writing in a foreign language is made easy by www.freetranslation.com. 'That was a jaffa of a delivery, Laxman doesn't like it up him' in Portuguese is "Isso era um jaffa de uma entrega, Laxman n�o gosta de ele para cima o'."

1213: India 185-7
Kumble jabs down late at Anderson's fullish one and gets another edge - this time off the inside of his logo-free blade - fine for four. Grimace from Anderson, who's hunting only his third ever Test five-wicket haul. Relax, Jim - you're leading the MotM race at the mo.

1208: India 181-7
Anil Kumble joins the fray, and gets off the quacker with a streaky edge off Siders to the third man boundary. Three slips in, a gully and a short square leg.

From Anthony Stevens in Milan: "Given I doubt there are any Japanese or Korean cricket fans out there, you could also try the following: 'Mina-sama ohayo gozaimasu' (Japanese), or 'Yorobun chohun achim inneyo' (Korean). These both have to advantage (for Tom) of not referring to any friends."

1200: WICKET - Dhoni c Bell b Anderson 0, India 175-7
That didn't last long - Glamourpuss tries to jab a late dab at Anderson's in-cutter and gloves straight to Bell in the gully. That's four for Jim, and he's been sensational today. Who needs Harmie and Fred?

1157: India 175-6
Siders pins VVS to the crease with a surprise lifter, and then bends a few in to his thighs. Maiden, which means Dhoni will face his first delivery next up from Jimmy.

From Geert D'Hulster in Antwerp: "�Goede ochtend, mijn vrienden� is the kind of phrase that a nineteenth century novelist might have used. 'Goeiemorgen, allemaal� sounds a bit more up-to-date."

1152: India 175-6
Glamourpuss trots in, but it's VVS who deals with Jimmy's wobblers, watching five go past before driving straightish to nab a single and the strike.

1144: WICKET - Singh c Anderson b Sidebottom 17, India 173-6
Those thrashes in the previous over clearly went to Arpy's head - he aims a shoulder-dislocator of a drive at the returning Siders and skies it to Jimmy A at mid-off. Casual pouch of a semi-tricky catch, and Siders is delighted. Time for a Dhoni smash-fest...

From Ed in Paris: "If we're being picky, you can remind Steve that you should never begin a sentence with the word 'and'. Eg 'And what makes you think you have any friends out there anyway?'"

1138: India 170-5
Arpy goes on the attack, blazing away at Tremmo and cracking him through mid-off and cover with dicey drives. He's zoomed on to 17, his highest Test knock, and he's loving every second. Boisterous applause from the Indian fans in the burgeoning crowd.

From Simon Uglow: "You could always try Dutch instead, Tom - 'Goede ochtend mijn vrienden'. See how many smart alecs quibble with that one..."

1134: India 160-5
Maiden from Jimmy, and the you can almost smell the pressure out there. On a different note, apparently Daniel Radcliffe is in the crowd. Jonny Borrell yesterday, Potter today - and with Nicholas Parsons coming up on TMS at tea-time. Rock and roll.

1128: India 160-5
VVS Laxman in, with the ground still buzzing after that juicy peach of a delivery from Anderson. Tremmo drops a touch short, and VVS leaves alone with concentrated seriousness.

From Paddy in Portugal: "The correct version is 'Guten Tag meine Freunde'. Steve in Tring overdid the dative thing."

1121: WICKET - Ganguly b Anderson 34, India 155-5
Tremendous delivery from Jimmy A, starting it wide and then bending it in. Gangools, fooled by all those ones angled across him earlier, aims a big drive at it and is comprehensively castled. Big wicket for England, and Jimmy's on fire here - three for 28 off his 18 overs so far.

From Steve in Tring: "Only three mistakes in the German? I can see four - should be 'Guten Tag meinen Freunden'. And what makes you think you have any friends out here anyway?"

Good early-doors sledging, Steve - I like it. But we do need the definitive Deutsch here. My original effort was 'Guten tag meinen freunden'. Clearly I missed out a capital letter or two there. But I was then deluged with complaints that it should be 'Guten Tag meine freunde'. Someone throw me a line here...

1115: India 154-4
Jimmy A angles four balls across Ganguly from over the wicket, and the prince-in-pads leaves 'em well alone. A comfy single allows Arpy his token waft-and-miss.

1110: India 153-4
Gangools pushes Tremmo for a comfy two past mid-off after avoiding a steepler that fizzes past the brow of his lid. Arpy thrashes vainly at another, keenly aware that he needs just one more run to match his highest ever Test score. Of six.

From Cat in Essex: "Was just sitting, listening to TMS whilst happily esconced in my Harry Potter book when I realised what an uncanny resemblance the pictures of Harry, Ron and Hermione on the front cover had to Alastair Cook, Ian Bell and Ryan Sidebottom. Coincidence? Anyone else noticed this?"

1106: India 149-4
Nightwatchman RP Singh, his duties concluded last night, has an airy joust at three Jimmy A outswingers and misses them all. Lovely role for Arpy today - his side don't want him to stick around, so he can have a thrash with a guilt-free conscience. Happy days.

1103: India 149-4
Tremmo trundles in for the first over of the day, sends five balls wide of Ganguly's off-stump and then flings one towards the leftie's hip and is glanced away for four. Nae dangers there.

1051: Apparently I made three mistakes in four words of German earlier on. Talk about the BBC dumbing down - that's a disgrace. I'm launching an internal review immediately.

1039: Fair bit of chat in the inbox about the way we've been refering to the Bowler Formerly Known As Sreesanth. Many of you aren't happy. I feel your pain, but should tell you that the new moniker is a direct request from the fella himself - he cornered our man at Lord's in the run-up to this match and requested that we hereby and hitherto referred to him as "Sree Santh".

From BBC Sport's Oliver Brett at Lord's: "I boarded the 274 bus at Camden Town this morning and could scarcely believe what I saw - an open bottle of burgundy poking out from an MCC member's hamper. Afflicted by the whiff of tannin, I checked my watch, suddenly worried I had overslept. Nope, it was 9.40am."

1019: Guten tag meine freunde - today I'll be doing the clockwatch entirely in other major European languages. Will I hell - it took me 15 minutes to construct that first phrase. Warm and sunny at Lord's, with a flag-rippler of a breeze.