Only 38.5 overs were feasible on the second day at Edgbaston, but they were enough for India to maintain their lead in the last Test of this series.
After India’s last three wickets combined 78 in a frantic morning session, their bowlers, headed by record-breaking captain Jasprit Bumrah‘s three wicket haul, left England reeling at 84 for 5, 332 runs short of India’s first-innings total.
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Bumrah was outstanding with the ball, dispatching England’s top three in three mini-sessions. He did, however, go down in history for his achievement with the bat. He smashed 29 off a Stuart Broad over that went for 35 runs, beating Brian Lara’s Test match record for most runs scored in a single over.
Broad, who had 550 Test wickets, was left with the humiliation of bowling the most pricey overs in both Test and T20I cricket.
The Bumrah blitz was the conclusion of England’s strange strategy to snare India’s tail. India started the day at 338 for 7, with coach Paul Collingwood declaring at the end of Day 1 that limiting India to about 360 would be a minor victory for the side.
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Ravindra Jadeja remained, aiming to farm the strike and get his fourth Test century. But it soon became clear that he could delegate more scoring responsibility to his fast bowlers.
With no fielders around the Stumps, England wanted to use a swarm of bouncers to get to the second new ball, which was seven overs away at the start of play. Mohammed Shami struck at a pair and landed three blows.
Jadeja, who started on 83*, cut over and under the slip cordon for a pair of fours before quickly reaching his century with a cut through backward point. India scored 33 runs in the first six overs of the day.
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Broad eventually broke the stand by dismissing Shami for his 550th Test wicket, while Anderson dismissed the centurion with the new ball at the other end. However, the former’s refusal to abandon the bumpers even with the new ball got him into problems.
Bumrah opened the crucial 84th over of India’s innings by top-edging a pull barely wide of fine-leg for four. He then hit a bouncer (widened for height) over the keeper’s head for four byes. Broad maintained his short ball onslaught, which was top-edged for six behind the stumps, before delivering a full toss, which was duly slapped to long on for four.
After an inside edge to fine-leg for four, the veteran spinner switched somewhere around the stumps and was taken for four in front of square and then for six over long leg.
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Bumrah’s 16-ball 31* took India to 416, a score that would have appeared improbable from 98/5 on the first day. The stand-in Indian skipper, buoyed by the flourish, blasted Alex Lees through the gate before rain drove the teams off for the first time.
Bumrah hit with his first delivery of the second session, when Zak Crawley edged to third slip, and almost had Joe Root out with an outswinger that skirted the edge. The thrilling battle between Bumrah and Root, on the other hand, lasted only five balls before rain forced the players to retire for another 99 minutes.
England began confidently, with fours from Root and Ollie Pope. The seventh ball from a Bumrah over, however, worked in his favour for the second time (following Lees), as Pope pursued a wide ball and nicked off.
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After four overs, the players were forced to leave for the second time in the session and the third time that day due to rain.
When the rains finally stopped in the final session, India’s fresh fast bowlers had another 12 over burst in England. It resulted in the day’s most probing spell, this time from Mohammed Shami, who swished the ball in and out at will.
He delivered one from wide off the crease that straightened but evaded the edge after cutting Root in half with balls seaming in back to him at pace. England, who had been scoring swiftly despite losing wickets, were rocked by four consecutive overs that yielded a single leg-bye.
Mohammed Siraj stepped on to the attack and got India the big fish after Root’s effort to cut him off the backfoot proved futile, as the additional bouncing ball found the edges on its way to the keeper.
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Despite being missed by Virat Kohli off the first delivery, England sent in a night-watchman in Jack Leach, who lasted all of five balls against Shami. Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes survived the session’s aftermath, but they have a massive challenge on the third day to bring the contest back into balance.