A day of dwindling fortunes finally ended with India enjoying an overall lead of 244 runs at stumps in Birmingham on Friday.
The second new ball brought a change in fortunes as Mohammed Siraj claimed three wickets to end with 6/70, his fourth five-wicket haul and first in England. Akash Deep took two more to take his tally to 4/88 as India grabbed a 180-run lead.
In their second innings, India were 64/1 at the end of the day. Yashasvi Jaiswal (28) was the batter dismissed, with KL Rahul (28 batting) and Karun Nair (7 batting) at
the crease.
Jamie Smith remained unbeaten on 184, his century coming off 80 deliveries, alongside Harry Brook’s 158. The two threatened to take the match out of India’s grasp during their 303-run sixth-wicket partnership.
There were six ducks in the England innings and 303 of their 330 runs on Friday came during the Smith-Brook stand.
The new ball did the trick as Akash Deep seamed one through Brook’s bat and pad off a length, knocking off the stumps. That was the first of the final five wickets, which fell for just 20 runs in 7.2 overs.
Savage attack
Brook and Smith brutally exposed the chinks in India’s armoury with a stunning display of explosive batting till the end of the second session.
The wicket didn’t offer much help to the bowlers and the England duo feasted
on some unimaginative bowling and inexplicable strategy displayed by the Indian
think-tank.
Both Smith and Brook went into Tea unbeaten and dominant, as England reached 355/5. The two revived their hopes after Siraj’s double strike in the morning had left them reeling at 84/5.
Smith made his intent clear after walking out as he drove the hat-trick delivery
for four down the ground. It was a stunning knock as he reached his century with back-to-back fours off Ravindra Jadeja in the final over of the morning session.
Brook raised his ninth Test hundred in only 27 Tests with a cut off Prasidh Krishna after Lunch.
Smith was lucky to get a reprieve on 121 when Rishabh Pant grassed a tough chance to his right. Undeterred, the duo reached the 200-run partnership milestone next ball, making it the first instance of an English pair doing so against India for a sixth-wicket stand or lower.
Though Smith stole the limelight, Brook authored an excellent century, brought up with his 13th boundary, dabbed through the cordon, between gully and second slip.
Brook was content with playing second fiddle for most of the partnership. Having come in on Thursday evening in testing conditions and counter-attacked a little, it has been a measure of his patience and ability to grind the Indian attack as Smith plundered runs at the other end.