Mark Wood struck twice in two overs and Sam Curran claimed the prize wicket of India captain Virat Kohli to put England in the box seat on day four of the second Test at Lord’s.
India lost both their in-form openers to Wood by the time they erased their 27-run deficit and were reeling at 3-56 at lunch with a massive rebuilding job ahead of them.
Cheteshwar Pujara was batting on three at the break, having needed 35 balls to get off the mark.
Ajinkya Rahane was on one and there possibly cannot be a better time for the India vice-captain to rediscover his form.
Wood jolted India early with clever change of length to dismiss KL Rahul for five.
Rahul, who scored 84, 26 and 129 in his past three innings, could only edge the express delivery to be caught behind.
Wood’s next over turned out to be an eventful one that ended with Rohit Sharma being dismissed for 21.
Rohit dragged a chest-high ball from outside the off-stump and pulled it for an audacious six, but Wood had the last laugh in this duel.
The last ball of that over was a similar one and this time Rohit could not middle the ball and Moeen Ali took a tumbling catch at deep square leg.
His team needed Kohli to lead by example, just like his opposite number Joe Root, whose unbeaten 180 was the bedrock of England’s first innings total of 391.
The India captain played a couple of gorgeous drives but Curran angled one away and Kohli could only guide it to Jos Buttler behind the stumps to depart for 20 with his team in disarray.
The rain-marred opening match of the five-Test series had ended in a draw in Nottingham.
Sgt Pepperoni
Roar Rookie
Congratulations. No wonder India are the world test champions. Oh wait ..
Sid Singh
Guest
This article was shared a bit early. Perhaps, something to learn from Bangladesh that we shouldn't celebrate too early. BTW, India won by 151 runs. Cheers!!!
Sgt Pepperoni
Roar Rookie
Well it was a matter of time. That's Pujara through and through. The credit might end up going to Bumrah and Shami but it all starts with Pujara Have to agree that I thought England were on top but it's just evaporating before their eyes. Just as it did in Sydney and Brisbane
Jeff
Roar Rookie
If his performance at Jo'burg last year (9-100 in the match) is anything to guy by, I'd say so. In fact I have pegged him to be the most successful of England's bowlers on tour here this summer.
Peter Farrar
Roar Pro
Mark Wood has developed nicely. Will be interested as to whether he finds the hard pitches in Australia to his liking.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Has he saved them? The increasing feeling I developed as I watched his innings progress was that it was only a matter of time until further Indian wickets fell, and that when they did fall India would have not many runs on the board to show for those wickets and certainly not enough of a lead to have India in a position to fight out a draw, let alone the unlikely outcome of a win. — I didn’t expect India to bat for four sessions in the 3rd innings and it’s panning out that way. However I was expecting that when the Indian innings came to an end in the morning session of the fifth day, England would have to score around 230 to 260 take the win – and take the draw away from India. It’s going to be much less for England now.
Sgt Pepperoni
Roar Rookie
Pujara saves India again. Despite all the calls for his head