Ollie Pope century leads England fightback to leave game in balance
This was a day of terrific drama, and everything that had been hoped for in advance of the series. After India's dominant first day, England surged back with ball and bat, throwing the game into delicate balance. England, closing on 209 for three and still 262 in arrears, have an enormous amount of work to do after losing the big wicket of Joe Root late in the day, but they are in the contest.
Things could have been worse when in an extraordinary nine-ball over from Jasprit Bumrah to conclude the day, Harry Brook — still yet to score — was caught off a no ball. It was more than Brook deserved: it was an atrocious hack into the leg side. Bumrah, who showed himself to be the champion he is by taking three for 48, took out his anger by roasting Brook with a couple of 90mph rip-snorters.
Game on. Arguments about Ben Stokes's decision at the toss thus evaporated on the hot breeze, as did the never-ending questions about Ollie Pope's right to bat three. He had some fortune, being dropped in the gully on 60 by Yashasvi Jaiswal, but he played a terrific innings, shaping his team's reply in the way batsmen in his position in the order are supposed to.
Pope sprinted frantically into the thirties, after which he calmed down, but this is his way. He got into a terrible mix-up with Ben Duckett in which either man might have been run out but neither was. Later, he narrowly escaped falling leg-before to Mohammed Siraj.
But at just after 7pm, play having been extended owing to a rain-break, Pope reached a superb ninth Test century off 125 balls and celebrated with a couple of meaningful fist-pumps. He had spoken about the need to back up Test hundreds and for the first time he has done so, this innings coming hard on the heels of his 171 against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge.
Unfortunately, the scampered single off an inside edge against Bumrah that brought him his hundred led to Root facing India's most dangerous bowler after the break for the crowd to salute Pope's landmark, and next ball Root, having played beautifully for 28, tamely cut a ball of width straight to first slip.
England generally had better luck though. When their openers walked out shortly after 2pm the skies were heavy and carried promise of extravagant movement. But before they could reach the middle, rain began to fall, leading to a delay of 45 minutes. When play eventually got back under way, the weather improved and much of England's innings was conducted in bright sunshine.
That did not remove all of England's difficulties. Whatever the weather, whatever the pitch, whatever the opposition, Bumrah is a major threat and he fully lived up to his reputation as the world's most skilful fast bowler.
The rest of the attack posed nothing like the same threat, Siraj struggling to extract movement while finishing wicketless, although he was awarded a leg-before verdict against Root that was overturned on review.
It was no surprise when Bumrah struck in his first over, angling a ball into Zak Crawley which Crawley looked to clip off his legs. It straightened, took an outside edge and flew to Karun Nair who took the ball between the balls of his thumbs but held on — a good catch for a man nursing a four-ball duck from earlier in the day.
Bumrah might have quickly added the scalp of Duckett but inexplicably Ravindra Jadeja, India's best fielder, spilled a catch at comfortable height at backward point. Duckett was 15 and went on to make a typically pugnacious 62 in a stand with Pope of 122 before Bumrah bowled him off an attempted drive.
The whole day was better from England. Stokes and Josh Tongue were superb with the ball, varying their lines off attack from either side of the wicket with skill. Tongue's closing spell of four for eight in 13 balls was vindication for the faith placed in a bowler who has been treated cruelly by injuries. He averages 85mph in his four Tests to date, putting him in England's top bracket of pace-men in the past 20 years.
Friday was made to look like just a bad day at the office with the ball from England rather than an indicator of deep-seated flaws. That India's total of 471 was the lowest all-out score in Test history to contain three centuries reflects how bowlers at Headingley can experience feast and famine in short order.
England's mood had been lifted by their fightback with the ball. The specialist seamers underperformed on Friday but were better now, backed up by better fielding. For 80 minutes, the overnight pair of Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant extended their big partnership with few alarms, but Gill in particular was kept in check. Chris Woakes bowled 22 dots to him in 24 balls, Stokes deploying an umbrella field to stifle his cover drives.
Shoaib Bashir conceded just one single in nine balls before Gill finally lost patience, targeted the longest boundary with one of his trademark pick-ups and holed out to Tongue, who would shortly be pounding up the hill to great effect.
Had the stroke evaded Tongue, Gill would have reached 151; as it was his 147 was a career-best effort and the second highest score by someone making their debut as captain where that Test was away from home (behind Alastair Cook's 173).
India were then 430 for four and still had the capacity to push to about 550, but they frittered away seven wickets for 41 in 47 balls. Things could have been worse, too, but in Bashir's next over Jamie Smith badly missed a chance to stump Pant on 124 when Pant, having cleared the square leg rope, was beaten in the flight looking for another big hit.
Smith gets too gentle ride over his glove-work; England cannot afford these sorts of errors this summer or in Australia.
Pant played the kind of innings that only he can play, full of outrageous unorthodoxies. Resuming on 65 overnight, he reached his hundred with a six over cow during a flurry of four sixes in five overs off Bashir.
At 146 balls, this was the slowest of Pant's seven Test hundreds but still hugely entertaining (his fastest off 89 balls came at Edgbaston in 2022 when Stokes said Pant would fit well into England's freewheeling batting line-up) and was marked with his customary somersault, an expression of joy but also liberation after the horrific leg injuries he sustained in a car crash three years ago.
It is remarkable he is playing again, let alone so brilliantly. He has now scored more centuries than any other India Test keeper, and his six sixes was a record for a visiting batsman to England.
The Indian collapse gained momentum with a brilliant leaping catch by Pope at cover to dispatch Karun Nair, driving in search of his first runs on his comeback. Stokes immediately recalled Tongue and his round-the-wicket attack clearly troubled Pant who, shouldering arms, was pinned in front for 134.
This left Shardul Thakur an awkward few minutes to negotiate before lunch and when Stokes invited the drive he could not resist, and only got a thick edge through to Smith.
When play resumed in the afternoon the skies were overcast, the floodlights on, and bowling conditions the best they had been in the match. Tongue had his tail up too, sensing his opportunity. A full length found Bumrah's outside edge and he then bowled Jadeja, who like Pant did not like his round-the-wicket attack and chopped on, before pile-driving through the defence of Krishna.
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