It’s the fifth afternoon at Headingley and India, somehow, are still breathing. Lunch arrived with only two wickets in hand and 81 runs to find, yet Ravindra Jadeja – no sword-swishing celebration this time – dug in for his fourth fifty on the bounce and kept everything open.
Ben Stokes responded in typically stubborn fashion. The England captain tore through a 9.2-over burst in the morning, then another 10 before tea, more or less bowling himself into the turf. In between setting fields and checking how much his body had left, he even had to approve Jadeja’s dash to the loo. He gave the nod, albeit through gritted teeth. At that point India were nine down and still 33 away.
The eighth-wicket stand, Jadeja with Jasprit Bumrah, lasted 132 balls for just 35 runs but mattered a great deal. Bumrah soaked up 55 of those deliveries – only twice has he batted longer in Tests – while Mohammed Siraj, later on, wore a short-ball barrage with two short legs and a leg slip breathing down his neck. By tea the deficit had shrunk to 30, England forced to accept an extra half-hour in search of the final breakthrough.
Earlier the new ball promised a quick finish. Jofra Archer removed Rishabh Pant in his third over. Stokes, from the Kirkstall Lane end, pinned KL Rahul – India’s form batter this match – and the tourists looked wobbly again. Nitish Kumar Reddy offered brief resistance, only for Chris Woakes to nip one back and clip off stump. “Only a matter of time,” Harry Brook muttered from short leg while trying to needle the batters – a line that felt prophetic then, though the clock is still ticking.
So, a final session beckons: India need 30, England need one. It’s tight, testy and not especially pretty, but nobody inside the ground is complaining.
