Harry Brook falls short of century as England fight back against India

Harry Brook smacked his left hand on his helmeted forehead, reconciled himself to his fate and began a slow trudge back to the pavilion, spinning his bat in the air, then dropping it, as if to compound the misery. 

On a day of classic Headingley mayhem, his dismissal for 99 – caught on the pull – silenced another full house as abruptly as the removal of his fellow Yorkshireman Joe Root had the night before.

Yet Brook could also console himself, for his performance was the centrepiece of England’s fightback in a gripping first Test against India that has boiled down to a second-innings shoot-out after the tourists’ lead was limited in thrilling fashion to six. 

What Bazball taketh away with one hand, it giveth with the other. Rarely has this team’s basic – and at times fragile – pact with its public been so starkly illustrated.

The local mood shifted again as India set about a tricky third innings in grey drizzle. Brydon Carse had Yashasvi Jaiswal, a centurion on Friday, caught behind for four, and Ben Stokes later persuaded Sai Sudharsan to chip a low catch Zak Crawley at midwicket for 30. 

Shortly after 6pm, with the clouds closing in and the rain growing heavy, KL Rahul – who had driven his way sweetly to 47 – and Shubman Gill couldn’t leave the field quickly enough.

There are two days to go, and India are 96 ahead, but they will want to extend their advantage to 300 and beyond to feel safe on a surface that has shown signs of unevenness but remains batsman-friendly, especially when the sun is out. This Test is yet to be taken by its scruff.

Above all, though, this was a day when England responded to the existential threat posed by Jasprit Bumrah by attacking his team-mates with a ruthlessness straight out of Brendon McCullum’s playbook. While Bumrah finished with five for 83, a 14th five-wicket haul that scarcely did justice to his unique genius, the rest of the Indian attack cobbled together five for 346.

The old joke, usually attributed to Graham Gooch, was that facing Richard Hadlee’s 1980s New Zealanders was a case of the World XI at one end and Ilford 2nds at the other. 

Some of the stuff served up by Bumrah’s team-mates might have earned a ticking-off in Ilford 3rds. Quite how India will cope when he is rested later in the series is a question without a comforting answer.

From England’s resumption on their overnight 209 for three, to their dismissal for 465 to signal a delayed tea, they ransacked 31 fours and five sixes, and raced along at almost five an over. Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna went for 250 between them, and India dropped two more chances, Brook the beneficiary on 46 and 82. 

Gill, their new captain, looked in need of advice, or possibly a cuddle. But Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma now ex-Test cricketers, and there was precious little of either.

England being England, of course, there was much to test their fans’ blood pressure. Ollie Pope added only six to his overnight 100 before edging a mediocre delivery from Krishna, and Stokes made just 20 before fiddling tamely at Siraj. He tossed his bat in the air too, and with sound cause: since the start of last year, he averages 27, his batting and bowling outputs going in opposite directions.

But then this is Headingley, a venue often spoken of in mystical terms, like some living, breathing organism that controls the players’ wills and dictates their deeds. Bad balls are edged behind, good balls driven for four, easy chances spurned. Logic seems to go out of the window more easily than at other venues.

Perhaps that was the best explanation for the dismissal of Jamie Smith, who moved imposingly to 40 with a crunching pull for six off Krishna, then aimed for a repeat and was caught at deep backward square by Ravindra Jadeja, who was so close to the boundary that he smartly offloaded the ball to Sudharsan.

With a strong wind in his favour, and despite three men on the fence, Smith had backed his ability, as per the dressing-room mantra. But the new ball was available next over, and Bumrah about to return. 

Stokes spoke before the game about the need to make smarter decisions in crucial moments, yet there was no worse time to expose the lower order. An entertaining sixth-wicket stand of 73 had come to a careless end.

Inevitably, the chaos continued. Already put down by Rishabh Pant off Jadeja’s left-arm spin, Brook now prodded Bumrah to fourth slip, where Jaiswal unaccountably grassed his second chance of the innings. 

Brook’s response was to help take 18 off an over from the talkative Siraj, who suddenly lost his tongue. A push for two off Krishna took him to 99, and Headingley prepared to celebrate one of their own. Caught on nought off a Bumrah no-ball late on Saturday evening, he was ready to join them.

Instead, an uncontrolled pull headed straight for Shardul Thakur, a few yards in from the fine-leg boundary, and the effect in the stands was as if parents had just gatecrashed their teenagers’ secret party. Of Brook’s eight Test hundreds, seven have come abroad. The sense of a missed opportunity was acute and painful.

But England kept going. Carse slapped 22, and Chris Woakes, innocuous with the ball, held firm for 38. When Bumrah collected his fourth and fifth wickets, bowling Woakes and Josh Tongue in successive overs, England were all out for 465, and within a six hit off India.

The teams’ proximity alone captured this game’s madness. While India had been 430 for three in their first innings after being invited to bat, only to lose their last seven for 41, England’s last seven had put on 259. It turns out there really is more than one way to skin a cat, especially at Headingley.