Ravichandran Ashwin and Ishant Sharma ripped through the cream of England’s batting to leave India in command on the third day of the first Test at Edgbaston on Friday.
At lunch, England had slumped to 6-86 in their second innings, a lead of just 99 runs.
Fast bowler Sharma, who at lunch had figures of 3-21 in 6.4 overs, took two wickets in three balls just before the interval to set the seal on a dominant morning for India in the opening match of a five-Test series.
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Sharma had Jonny Bairstow (28) taken by Shikhar Dhawan at first slip and two balls later he dismissed Ben Stokes (six) via a fine low catch by India captain Virat Kohli at third slip off what became the last ball of the session as England, in their 1,000th Test match, suffered a familiar collapse.
Off-spinner Ashwin, who took 4-62 in England’s first-innings 287, had earlier removed the top three for a lunch haul of 3-34 in 15 overs.
England had been on course to build a first-innings lead of more than a hundred runs.
But a masterful 149 by Kohli, the star batsman’s first Test century in England, took India to 274 all out, a deficit of just 13 runs.
And before Thursday’s close, India captured the prize wicket of Alastair Cook, England’s all-time leading Test run-scorer, for a duck when, for the second time this match, Ashwin bowled him with a brilliant delivery that pitched on middle and hit the off-stump.
It was not long on Friday before Ashwin removed Keaton Jennings, another left-handed opener, after England resumed on nine for one, a lead of 22 runs.
England were 2-18 when Jennings (eight), nicked Ashwin to KL Rahul at second slip.
Ashwin struck again when England captain Joe Root, his team’s best batsman, saw a genuine clip off pads lead to an excellent low catch at leg-slip by Rahul.
England: Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Joe Root (c), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Adil Rashid, Sam Curran, Stuart Broad, James Anderson.
India: Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravi Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma.
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