Dravid and India crawl towards series win

LONDON, Aug 12 (Reuters) India captain Rahul Dravid inflicted slow torture on England today with a laboured innings which made it almost impossible for the home side to claim the victory they need to square the series.

India, who chose not to enforce the follow-on, were 121 for five at tea off 46 overs on the fourth day of the third and final test at The Oval, an overall lead of 440 runs.

Dravid's 12 in 140 minutes was the slowest dozen runs scored in test cricket in terms of minutes taken, according to statisticians.

VVS Laxman was unbeaten at the interval on 16, while Mahendra Singh Dhoni also had 16. James Anderson and Paul Collingwood have two wickets each.

India are on the verge of claiming their first test series win in England for 21 years, while the home team will need to score more than the world record 418 to win batting fourth or more realistically bat out the second innings to draw the match.

Pundits criticised Dravid for not making England follow on and pushing for a 2-0 series win. However Dravid clearly felt he wanted to snub out any lasting chance England had of an unlikely victory by using up more time and increasing the target.

After India went to lunch on 35 for three, Saurav Ganguly continued his counter attack by racing to 57 from just 68 balls with nine fours until he edged to slip.

Ganguly gave Andrew Strauss his 50th test catch when his attempted cut through his favoured square of the wicket region found first slip.

While Ganguly batted fluently, his skipper still appeared inhibited by the early loss of three wickets.

Dravid was stuck on two for 35 balls and when the 50 partnership with Ganguly was raised his share was five from 53 balls while Ganguly had contributed 45 from 46.

When Laxman moved to five in seven minutes at the crease, Dravid had been batting for 125 minutes for the same score, receiving ironic cheers from the crowd when he passed that mark.

Dravid's 96-ball stay ended when he edged a Collingwood outswinger to Strauss.

England have not lost a home test series since 2001.

REUTERS PDS BST2055