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For all the tired old wisecracks about cricket in Yorkshire being a dour, uncompromising pursuit, it feels like there is rarely a dull Test at Headingley. After a third day that was cut short by late rain but still packed with more incident than a stag do taking on the Otley Run, another classic could be bubbling up.
At stumps, the long-expected drizzle having finally swept in with 30 minutes still to play, India were 90 for two and the happier of the two sides to call it a night. They had earlier seen their hopes of a sizable lead dashed by Harry Brook’s incendiary 99 and some ruinous drops, with England 465 all out and thus just six runs behind on first innings.
Even with India’s lead then swollen to 96, the history at Headingley makes this series opener too tight to call. If the tourists had cause for encouragement during the evening session, it was how comfortable KL Rahul had looked, the opener cruising to an unbeaten 47 and sending seven fours whistling across this rapid, cambered outfield.
But then England could feel pretty buoyant themselves, and not just courtesy of the Brook special that had taken them within touching distance of India’s 471 and sent Mohammed Siraj slightly batty in the process. The latest Dukes ball had been doing a fair bit out there and two precious strikes had already been pocketed.
The first was a player to certainly see the back of, Yashasvi Jaiswal following his first innings 101 with a cheap edge behind off Brydon Carse. Although it was not until a late booming inswinger from Ben Stokes removed Sai Sudharsan for 30 that India’s momentum had been checked. It was a well worked plan, the ball chipped to mid-wicket, and meant Ben Duckett’s earlier drop off the left-hander was not costly.
Regrets? India had more, not least Jasprit Bumrah overstepping late on the second evening and gifting Brook a life before his account had even been opened. Add two more chances on 46 and 82 on the third day – Rishabh Pant missing a feather induced by Ravindra Jadeja, Jaiswal clanging another at slip to deny Bumrah – and it was hard to argue that Brook was unlucky to fall one run short of a ninth Test century.
Not that the agony was any less for it, Brook hooking Prasidh Krishna down long leg’s throat and throwing his head back like a dad who had just stepped on a stray Lego brick. As the Western Terrace let out a sigh, Brook had become England’s 14th Test cricketer to suffer a 99 flake and the first since Jonny Bairstow at Old Trafford eight years ago. None had done it on their home ground previously.
As New Zealand will attest, having grassed five catches during his 171 in Christchurch last year, Brook is not a guy to let slip. And here, even before Ollie Pope had edged behind first thing on 106, the Yorkshireman was in one of his tub-thumping moods, crashing 11 fours, two sixes, and treating the second new ball like a chew toy. Rarely has a bat sticker felt more apt than the Major League Baseball logo on Brook’s blade, not least when he drilled the increasingly incensed Siraj into the Football Stand.
Brook could and probably should have had a frontline batter alongside him when the box of fresh Dukes was brought out to the middle. Stokes had come and gone for 20 after poking Siraj behind. Jamie Smith then fell for 40 with just three deliveries to go before its arrival, victim of a smart relay catch on the rope but also a battle of egos with Prasidh Krishna that he lost. At 349 for six, still 122 runs in arrears, it felt like a hammer blow.
Enter Chris Woakes, England’s insurance policy at No 8 and paying out with 38 runs and some diligent defence against the whiplashed threat of Bumrah. Stands of 49 with Brook and 55 with Carse were central to India’s eventual Rizla-thin lead, while two back-to-back sixes off Krishna – one hook, one uppercut – took him past 2,000 Test runs. In his 58th Test, Woakes became the fourth fastest Englishman to combine this with 150-plus wickets, even if his tally of 181 victims is worryingly still to increase.
In the end it took the return of Bumrah to prise out Woakes, the ball angling in and nipping through the gate. And when India’s spearhead repeated the dose to Josh Tongue and shut things down, he walked off with his 14th Test five-wicket haul secured. Five for 83 from Bumrah, five for 356 from the rest. With Shardul Thakur sending down just six of 100 overs, India may wish they had picked Kuldeep Yadav’s wrist-spin.
As it is, the touring side will be hoping the odd bit of inconsistent bounce already witnessed only increases towards the back end of the match, likewise the extra bite that Jadeja and then Shoaib Bashir had begun to find.
Either way, despite finding themselves the right side of two Headingley classics in recent times, England will also need to overcome the remarkable Bumrah – a fast bowler who is in a league of his own.
