After star pacer Jasprit’s fifer helps visitors take slender six-run first innings lead despite Harry Brook’s 99, KL’s unbeaten 47 ensures Shubman Gill’s men end Day Three on 90-2 against England at Leeds
KL Rahul during his 47 not out yesterday. Pic/Bipin Patel
The middle day of any Test match is regarded as the moving day, which often produces a decisive swing in pendulum. Events unfolded at a rapid pace on Sunday, the third day of the first Test at Headingley, but almost till the very end, it was hard to say who of England or India was in greater control.
The stars of the show were Jasprit Bumrah (5-83), India’s talisman who took a fourth five-wicket haul in his last six Test appearances, and Harry Brook, who rode his luck until he finally ran out of the same commodity, heartbreakingly dismissed for 99. But while these two dominated the action, there were others in the spotlight too, and not necessarily for the right reasons.
England’s Harry Brook is dejected on being dismissed for 99. Pic/Bipin Patel
Bumrah’s support pace cast didn’t exactly cover itself in glory. Mohammed Siraj bowled his heart out, admittedly, but Prasidh Krishna was guilty of bowling too short and being taken to the cleaners, first by Brook and Jamie Smith, and then more damagingly by Chris Wakes and Brydon Carse, who smashed the second new ball around with impunity to rapidly eat into India’s total of 471.
Sloppy fielding
India didn’t help their cause with continued shoddy catching. Rishabh Pant dropped Brook off Ravindra Jadeja, wicketless but easily India’s best bowler after Bumrah, when the batter was on 46 and Yashasvi Jaiswal shelled his second catch of the innings at gully, also off Brook (on 83). All of this meant India were forced to use Bumrah for a fourth and then a fifth spell, and what ought to have been a handy, if not decisive, lead was finally kept down to six, England bowled out for 465 at the stroke of tea. In reply India ended Day Three on 90-2.
Jaiswal’s Test has gone pear-shaped since his century on the opening day, and he was dismissed in the fourth over of the second innings, caught behind off Carse. But KL Rahul (47 not out), his opening partner, helped debutant Sai Sudharsan (30) through an understandably nervy initial phase and then played some sumptuous cover drives that lit up a gloomy, windy, overcast evening. Sudharsan, who got off the dreaded pair with a steered four first ball, grew in confidence with time spent in their middle, their 66-run alliance extending India’s miniscule first-innings advantage before Ben Stokes ended Sudharsan’s stay.
Pope departs for 106
India tasted early success when England resumed on 209-3, Prasidh procuring extra bounce to dismiss centurion Ollie Pope (106) off the morning’s 13th delivery. Jadeja came on reasonably early and held one end up superbly with excellent control, occasionally getting the ball to rip past the right-handed Brook, who made the most of his reprieve on nought the previous evening when Bumrah overstepped to unleash a sequence of muscular strokes, stitching together meaningful associations with a watchful Stokes and an enterprising Smith. With a deserved ninth century one run away, Brook pulled Prasidh to long-leg but through the lower order, England smacked runs with style and rapidity to thwart India’s designs of a sizeable lead.
12
No. of fifers for Jasprit Bumrah in away Tests, the joint-most by an Indian pacer, alongside Kapil Dev
Brief scores
India 471 & 90-2 (KL Rahul 47*) vs England 465 (O Pope 106, H Brook 99, B Duckett 62, J Smith 40; J Bumrah 5-83, P Krishna 3-128, M Siraj 2-122)
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