A day on from that much-debated decision to bowl first by Ben Stokes and the clouds had started to lift for England. The hosts were still some way from flipping the advantage they had handed India but by stumps, after an earlier fightback with the ball, Ollie Pope’s unbeaten 100 had established something akin to a foothold in the contest.
Pope came into this Test with questions being asked about his spot at No 3; questions that centred around a poor record against India and Australia and not quelled bythat 171 against Zimbabwe. Jacob Bethell, flavour of the month in New Zealand late last year, was breathing down his neck, even if potential, rather than back catalogue, was the driver.
And yet as England closed on 209 for three in reply to India’s 471 all out – a total derailed by a collapse of seven for 41 – Stokes was grateful to his vice-captain for holding firm in the face of a typically electric display by Jasprit Bumrah. It would be wrong to roll out Graham Gooch’s old line about Richard Hadlee – “World XI at one end, Ilford 2nds at the other” – but when Bumrah was on, the smell of wickets hung in the clammy air.
India’s remarkable slingshot could easily have had more than his three for 48 from 13 overs, not least the edge that Yashasvi Jaiswal had earlier grassed at slip when Pope was on 60. His day underlined where the crux of this series likely sits but ended with those broad shoulders slumped. Harry Brook, on nought simply tasked with seeing out the final over, was caught playing a wild hook, only for a front-foot no-ball to be called.
The Yorkshire faithful could have been forgiven for grumbling about there being “more brains in a pork pie” – a charge that at least could not be laid at Pope. His one life aside, England’s No 3 had been largely equal to his unique challenge of Bumrah and the spikiness of Mohammed Siraj. Emerging after the loss of Zak Crawley sixth ball, and looking in touch from the outset, Pope sent 13 fours cruising along this fast outfield.
Pope looked a bit like a local at times, picking up runs behind square as they tend to do in these parts and sealing his ninth Test century before the close. The celebration was one of pent up frustration being released. But he also needed partners, Ben Duckett making a typically punchy 62 in a stand of 122 runs and Joe Root adding 28 in an alliance worth of 80. Both had early reprieves – Duckett dropped on 15, Root overturning an lbw on seven – and both were ultimately Bumrah’d in the end.
It was never going to be straightforward, with India’s collapse either side of lunch as welcome for England as it was potentially ominous. The clouds had rolled over Headingley to start the Dukes ball hooping and only made way in the evening. For Josh Tongue this was simply manna from heaven, day one figures of none for 75 from 16 transformed into four for 86 from 20 courtesy of a rapid demolition of the tail. As Stokes joked in his celebrations, Tongue was devouring some rabbit pie here.
Although the spark was Shoaib Bashir getting the breakthrough that his performance 24 hours earlier had deserved when Shubman Gill looked to take down the off-spinner on 147 and skewed the ball to deep backward square. Gill and Pant had put on 209 for the fourth wicket, the latter turning his overnight 65 into three figures and celebrating with a superb somersault. Going by the ovation, the locals thought was flippin’ marvellous.
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Pant sure is an entertainer, his eventual 134 from 178 balls packed with more fun than a day at Disney. And yet for all the tumbling scoops and range hitting into the Western Terrace – 12 fours and six sixes – it was stitched together with watchful defence. This, as much as the mischief, is why only three wicketkeepers – Adam Gilchrist (17), Andy Flower (12) and Les Ames (8) – have scored more than his seven Test centuries.
But with an end opened up by Gill’s removal at 430 for four, the previously listless England suddenly surged and India’s total became the lowest in Test history to contain three centuries. Among the three ducks that made it so was poor Karun Nair, who had spent eight years waiting for a Test recall and chipped his fourth delivery from Stokes to a flying Pope at short cover. It really can be a cruel sport at times.
Tongue knows it all too well, of course, the fast bowler back this summer after an 18-month battle with injuries. Reward for this perseverance came with the eventual removal of Pant, a switch to around the wicket messing up the left-hander’s calibrations and leading to an odd-looking lbw offering no shot. Jamie Smith, who had earlier missed a stumping off Pant when he was on 124, could also breathe a sigh of relief.
This was possibly surpassed by those from Duckett and Crawley after Tongue gobbled up his rabbit pie and 40 minutes of rain then intervened. Not that conditions improved much after the restart, Bumrah steaming in under lights, squaring up Crawley in his first over, and seeing an edge fly into the cordon. But on this sticky second day Indian hands lost some of their adhesiveness and Pope wriggled England free.