Rahul, Pant and Jadeja star as Lord's Test turns into second-innings shootout

India were in the middle of a careful, painstaking build. Then they got distracted by something shiny, and spent the rest of the day paying for it. Cricket may be a team sport but the events leading up to lunch on the third day at Lord's epitomise how much individual records matter - for better or worse.

KL Rahul offered a sheepish look after his clattering of a short and wide delivery proved insufficient to beat deep point. So now he was on 98 instead of 101, and facing the prospect of a nervous 40 minutes inside the change room. Rishabh Pant wanted to spare his team-mate that trouble and went for a risky single. Ben Stokes pounced.

That moment coloured the rest of play on the third day, which ended with India drawing level with England's 387. There were ten minutes left. England dragged their feet. Tempers began to flare. Shubman Gill had some choice words, and sarcastic claps as Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett's delay tactics allowed for only one over until stumps.

Three players earned the opportunity to take this game by the scruff of its neck. Jofra Archer summoned fire and brimstone during a four-over spell right after lunch. Lord's lived every ball, clapping him on as he ran in, their oohs and aahs defying the physics of a wide open space to create an echo. Ravindra Jadeja and Nitish Kumar Reddy couldn't appreciate any of this. It was all they could do to survive.

Archer unleashed at this ground is addiction. On a slow pitch, with an old ball, he was generating an average speed of 150.3kph/90.3mph. He had never bowled quicker in Test cricket.

But England couldn't break through. It was a feeling they had to get used to on Saturday morning. Stokes didn't care for it. He had been functioning as less than himself over the last two years, his body coming in the way of his myth. The England captain used to be known for his ferocity with the ball in hand. And now, after hamstring surgery, it seems he will be able to carry on that persona.

For five overs, Stokes bombarded India. Twenty-six bouncers or back-of-a-length deliveries, many of them aimed at Pant, who was nursing an injured finger which seemed to behave itself except when Stokes was close and cranking his own pace up to 90mph.

It was at the tail-end of this little skirmish that India's focus shifted from the team's needs to an individual's, and Stokes could feel it happening. He was hyperalert to Pant trying to pinch a single to cover and help Rahul get to his century before lunch. There was anger in the celebration of that run-out - itself an homage to Stokes' athleticism as he swooped down on the ball, spun around and completed a markedly more difficult direct hit at the bowler's end. He brought his cap to his mouth, a trick used to prevent the cameras from catching what you're saying, even as the rest of the team rallied around him, and rose with him.

Rahul set the rhythm of this Test match. He was partly the cause of England's frustration. He was the source of India's calm. He secured their eighth century on tour, a new record. Repeatedly, he talks about the discrepancy between effort and reward, and when he does so, it is tempting to extrapolate he had learned that lesson the hardest way possible. Obsessing about his lack of success and doubling down on his prep work in search for a change.

At some point, though, Rahul realised he needed to let go, which is funny because, one time, in South Africa, he started speaking about how letting go of the ball was where his joy was. Bit by bit, his focus turned from scoring runs to just being the best batter he can be. Well, in this series, he has made two hundreds in three Tests, and as he scurried to this one, he took time for himself, running practically all the way to the boundary as he completed a quick single, and then looking up at the sky with closed eyes. Once again, it was tempting to imagine him looking back at all the struggle and telling himself it was worth it.

All of these stirring performances, and yet the third Test of this series remains evenly poised.

Stokes tried to sway it again - this time with the new ball - a seven-over spell where a dead pitch came to life just for him and helped England break the 72-run Jadeja-Reddy partnership that had been immune to their own abysmal running.

Pant had tried to sway it earlier, braving time in the middle, even though he was far from 100%. But injured or not, he was still him, so it was natural that he charged down the track to Archer in the first over of the day. Or that he was irked by a stretch of 25 dots and tried to break it with a reverse scoop. Or that he turned the first ball of spin he faced into his 88th six, which means he is only two short of Virender Sehwag, who holds the India record. Frenetic. Unpredictable. Captivating. Even when he makes mistakes, like with the run-out.

India slipped from 248 for 3 to 254 for 5 when Rahul was dismissed on 100, which was 11 balls later. That prompted Stokes to wind Archer and let him loose. The idea was to burst through India's allrounders into the tail just in time for the second new ball. But Jadeja wouldn't budge. He made 72 off 131 balls. His technique - particularly the ability to discern between the balls he needs to play and those he doesn't - is under-rated. When he's in form, he's as good as a top-order batter, and he seemed to be the final play, a decisive shift in the game, until he was dismissed with India 11 runs off England's total, and they were bowled out for exactly the same score: 387.

Lord's and ties. It's starting to get ridiculous.