It was Test cricket at its very best in the Edgbaston Test between England and India as the pendulum swung from one side to the other throughout the second day.
Ultimately, India will feel it was their day after they restricted England’s first-innings lead to 13 runs before Ravichandran Ashwin dismissed Alastair Cook cheaply once again before stumps at Birmingham.
England are 9-1 at the close of play after India had put up 274 runs in reply to their first-innings total of 287.
Here, we look at the key talking points from an exhilarating day of Test cricket.
SAM CURRAN DESTROYS INDIA’S TOP ORDER
All eyes would have been on James Anderson and Stuart Broad when India came out to bat on Thursday morning. However, it was young Sam Curran playing in only his second Test that stole the show at Edgbaston.
India openers Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay would have assumed that the worst was over when they saw off England’s new-ball pairing to bring up a 50-run stand. Curran though, had other ideas, as he showed England the value of having a left-armed seamer in their bowling attack.
Getting the ball to tail back in sharply into the right-hander, Curran troubled Vijay before finally trapping him plumb in front of the wicket in just his second over. Two deliveries and a streaky boundary through the slip cordon later, Curran had his second wicket of the over when KL Rahul dragged a wide delivery on to his stumps.
Soon it was three wickets in two overs for Curran when Dhawan could only edge an outswinging delivery into the hands of Dawid Malan at slip. From 50-0, India were reduced to 59-3 as Curran brought the Edgbaston crowd to its feet.
Curran was the pick of England’s pacers on Thursday.
STOKES’ CENTURY OF TEST DISMISSALS
If Curran had wiped away India’s top-order, Ben Stokes was on hand to decimate the middle-order. After Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane had safely negotiated their way to lunch, Stokes came out firing in the second session as he got the Duke ball to generate some prodigious movement.
His spell after lunch created mayhem immediately with Rahane struggling to get to grips with the moving ball. The India middle-order batsman perished soon enough after he stabbed at a good length delivery outside off-stump only to edge it towards Keaton Jennings at third slip.
With his next over, Stokes shattered Dinesh Karthik’s stumps with a late inswinging delivery to complete his 100th dismissal in Test cricket. That feat means that Stokes is now only the fifth Englishman to have scored over 2, 5000 runs and picked up over 100 wickets in Test cricket.
Ben Stokes’ fiery spell after lunch destroyed India’s middle-order.
KOHLI WAGES LONE BATTLE FOR INDIA WITH GRITTY TON
After his antics on Wednesday which created quite the stir in England, Virat Kohli was always going be the centre of attention when he came out to bat on Thursday. He was straight away put to the test against his old nemesis James Anderson. The India skipper was put under the pump as the red ball moved with vigour on a pitch which had burst into life after a much sedate opening day. Edges flew past the slip cordon, twice he was dropped in the slips, but yet he managed to somehow find the grit to survive.
In the end, not only did he survive, he flourished. Dawid Malan was the guilty party on both occasions he was dropped and the England batsman will not want to look Anderson and Stokes in the eye after how the day ultimately panned out.
With a steady determination to make amends for his disappointing 2014 tour, Kohli waged a lone battle against England’s pacers and in the end single-handedly dragged them to just 13 runs short of the England total. A lead of over a 100 seemed all but a formality for England at one stage but by the time they left the field, their shoulders had dropped and the momentum had clearly swung India’s way.
With the tail for company, Kohli had played one of his greatest Test innings, if not the best. A maiden ton in England was just reward for the manner in which he had dug in despite the adverse conditions and hostile bowling. He scored 134 runs in 10 innings the last time he was in England. On Thursday alone, he had scored 149.
Kohli buried the ghosts of his 2014 tour in one single innings of defiance.
