Edgbaston Test still in the balance as England and India serve up a treat

SAM MORSHEAD AT EDGBASTON: It was sport that dared you to leave your seat… and punished you when you did. It was sport that offered a multitude of storylines all at once, all equally engaging and all beautifully told

Edgbaston (third day of five): England 287 & 180, India 274 & 110-5 - India, with five second-innings wickets remaining, need 84 more runs to win 

What a treat. What a treasure. What an absolute pleasure.

For the second successive day, this spell-binding Test match provided absolutely compelling viewing.

As engrossing as sport comes, it toyed with the emotions of everyone inside Edgbaston, and many, many more elsewhere.

It was sport that dared you to leave your seat… and punished you when you did. It was sport that offered a multitude of storylines all at once, all equally engaging and all beautifully told.

It was sport beyond comparison. It is exhausting just trying to put it into words.

Somehow, England will go into Saturday with what appears to be the upper hand, their guests still needing 84 - and what would be India's highest ever successful chase in England - with five wickets remaining.

^{Sam Curran hits Ravi Ashwin for six}

Then again, if we are to learn just one thing from these nine dramatic sessions in Birmingham it must surely be that, this week at least, nothing is quite as it seems.

England appeared to be in a hole in their first innings, for instance, before Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow combined, only for the pair to fluff the whole thing up when it looked as though they were totally in command.

In reply, India were coasting until Sam Curran’s intervention - an eight-ball blitz the details of which even he wasn’t clear about at the close. Then the tourists were stuttering, only to be cajoled by their captain’s brilliant hundred.

And so the trend continued on Friday. From one side to another, back and forth.

For a period of no more than an hour on the third morning, Edgbaston’s large electronic scoreboard stood in darkness, presumably due to some sort of technical malfunction.

Seventy yards away, England’s batsmen could empathise with the giant screen and its information-less state.

They, too, were unable to provide any answers. They, too, held blank expressions. They, too, were - for those sorry moments, at least - in desperate need of a reboot.

By the time data started flicking up at the Pavilion End again, just before lunch, this Test had seemingly swung irretrievably in India’s favour. England, an ugly mess in their second innings, had lost five more wickets to go with that of Alastair Cook the night before, undone at first by the exquisite spin of Ravi Ashwin and then the intelligent seam of Ishant Sharma.

The home side capitulated to 87 for seven and, though there was age-and-experience-defying resistance from Sam Curran towards the end, 180 all out - for a lead of 193 - simply did not feel like enough.

But Test cricket’s inimitable rhythm and flow wasn’t finished with us yet.

Stuart Broad opened with the sort of spell only Stuart Broad can bowl - a heart-pumping, soul-thumping, jump-starting kind of spell that got Edgbaston roaring with every last decibel from the depths of 40,000 lungs.

Again, India’s top order, with the exception of the skipper, were unable to cope.

Again, the match tilted in the opposite direction, like a rickety ship in rocky water.

On played the hackety sax.

^{Stuart Broad celebrates one of his two wickets}

Broad nabbed two, Ben Stokes another. Curran - who in a matter of 48 hours has gone from backing vocals to touring solo - popped up with the wicket of Rahane and India were 63 for four.

Jimmy Anderson arrived to continue his very personal duel with Kohli but ended up removing Ashwin instead.

And so we move on to Saturday, the edges of our seats worn smooth, expectations heightened. 

Early on day three, India had been twisted in front by Ashwin.

Ashwin’s control over the spinning ball is truly marvellous to watch; the seam perfectly straight, revolutions aplenty, that little red nut turning on its axis like the globe atop a First World War general’s drinks cabinet. Only, once in a while, he chucks in a leg break. You know,  for the bants.

England, their top order laden with left-handers, did not stand much of a chance.

Keaton Jennings was first, caught well by KL Rahul low to his right in the gully.

Root followed for 14, middling one off his hips to Rahul, who by now was situated at leg slip. Root was furious with himself on his wander back to the pavilion, ghosting a flat-batted heave that would have avoided all danger.

The problems kept coming for England, as Dawid Malan made it to 20 before finding Ajinkya Rahane in the slips off Sharma.

Malan has now passed 28 just once in his 10 most recent Test innings, averages below 29 and must surely be replaced for Lord’s. Joe Clarke of Worcestershire seems the sensible choice should Ed Smith want an extra right-hander to negate Ashwin, while Surrey’s Ollie Pope could also be an option, although the installment of Nick Gubbins or Rory Burns in the top three would free Root up to occupy his favoured No.4 berth.

Bairstow tried counter attack as a way of hauling England out of a hole and for a brief period it worked but his departure on 28, caught by Shikhar Dhawan at first slip, preceded a flurry of wickets the likes of which we had not seen since from an English middle order since Wednesday.

Stokes edged Sharma to Kohli, and two balls later the same bowler got rid of Jos Buttler, playing a loose shot off the back foot and away from his body.

Three in an over. England in tatters. At that stage, with the lead at 100, obituaries were being readied. Curran made sure they were a tad premature.

Unafraid to take on the Indians and quite happy to take up their invitation of great chasms in the offside field, the allrounder paired up with Adil Rashid to put on 48 in a little less than 14 overs.

^{Ishant Sharma claimed five wickets}

Once Rashid had departed, Broad took up the role of second fiddle, creating the curious situation where a man winning his second Test cap was shielding a man with a Test century from the strike. Not that the Surrey allrounder was too bothered.

Curran might only be five-foot eight but his confidence is multi-storeyed and he was not about to shy away from the challenge.

Ashwin found this out to his cost. Curran, having seen England’s higher-ranked left-handers perplexed by the spin, launched one giant six back over the bowler's head and then clattered an equally imposing straight four the next delivery.

To reach his half-century - and become the fourth youngest Englishman to make the landmark in Tests - he shimmied down the track and promptly plopped Sharma over the rope at extra cover.

Of course, it couldn’t last. Curran was last man out, for 63, and received a hero’s welcome on the walk to the dressing rooms. Not that he noticed, head down and shaking. Disappointed not to get more. This kid has one heck of a future.

England knew early wickets were the only option. Luckily for them, Broad was in the mood.

When Broad bowls like this, the wind of 20,000 baying voices at his back, he is nigh-on unstoppable. Root knows that his bowler thrives on theatre, that he revels in a crowd being captivated by his every thudding footstep towards the crease. And so the England captain took on the role of showman, beckoning the stalls to raise the volume. Edgbaston reacted obediently, and wildly.

This magnificent arena, deprived of an adequate audience for the first two days of the Test, was raucous.

Murali Vijay went lbw offering no stroke, a relief to Malan who had spilled his third chance of the match at second slip minutes earlier, then Dhawan got a nibble through to Bairstow.

Stokes dislodged Rahul in similar fashion, while Bairstow also held onto catches to get rid of Rahane and Ashwin.

There was an understated feel to the final throes of the evening, partly lit by floodlights and partly by the departing sun, as Dinesh Karthik and Kohli put on 32. But that could not take away from the madness of it all.

The wonderful, wonderful madness.