LONDON: India star Jasprit Bumrah took three wickets for one run in seven balls before England’s Jamie Smith made the tourists pay for dropping him in the third Test at Lord’s on Friday.
England resumed on 251-4 on the second morning but were reduced to 271-7 as fast bowler Bumrah dismissed captain Ben Stokes, century-maker Joe Root and all-rounder Chris Woakes. At lunch Bumrah had figures of 4-63.
England had recovered to 353-7 by the break. Smith, dropped in the slips on five, was 51 not out after sharing an unbroken eighth-wicket stand of 82 with Brydon Carse (33 not out).
Wicketkeeper Smith’s fifty followed his impressive scores of 184 not out and 88 during India’s crushing 336-run win in the second Test at Edgbaston last week that levelled this five-match series at 1-1.
Initial interest Friday focused on whether star batsman Root would go on to make a hundred.
In all 17 previous instances in Test cricket, batsmen who were 99 not out overnight completed their centuries the following morning. Root maintained the sequence off Friday’s first ball, pushing at a wide delivery from Bumrah, the world’s top-ranked Test bowler, that flew past gully for four.
That fortunate boundary completed Root’s 37th Test century, fifth on an all-time list headed by India’s Sachin Tendulkar with 51 hundreds.
Stokes, fit following a groin injury that hampered him on Thursday, had added just five runs to his overnight 39 when he was bowled playing down the wrong line to a Bumrah delivery that jagged back and smashed into off stump.
Next ball, Woakes fell for a golden duck as he chased a wide delivery from Bumrah outside off stump and got a thin edge to reserve wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel, still deputising after Rishabh Pant suffered a finger injury on Thursday.
It needed an India review to confirm the dismissal.
Carse survived the hat-trick delivery but England were still struggling at 271-7.
Their position would have been even worse had KL Rahul not dropped a relatively straightforward slip chance when Smith had made just five, with Mohammed Siraj the unlucky bowler.
Smith went onto complete a 52-ball fifty including a whipped four through midwicket off Bumrah, with Carse flaying the India spearhead through the covers for a well-struck boundary.
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