Jamie Smith made the highest Test score by an England wicketkeeper of 184 not out, and Harry Brook passed 150 yet again, but India still ended Friday’s third day of the second Test at Edgbaston with a lead of over 200 runs.
England were in dire straits at 84-5, more than 500 runs behind, when Smith joined forces with Brook in just the second over of the day’s play.
They came together after Mohammed Siraj had taken two wickets in two balls, including removing Ben Stokes for the first golden duck of the England captain’s Test career.
But England’s sixth-wicket duo went on to add 303 runs before Brook fell for 158, with the hosts just one run shy of the follow-on.
And by the time England were dismissed for 407, Smith had long since surpassed Surrey mentor Alec Stewart’s previous highest Test score by an England wicketkeeper of 173 against New Zealand at Auckland in 1997.
The second new ball, as the first one had done, however, proved England’s undoing, with Siraj (6-70) and the recalled Akash Deep (4-88), in for the rested Jasprit Bumrah, sharing all 10 wickets in an England innings featuring six ducks.
India, looking to level the series after last week’s five-wicket loss in the first Test at Headingley, led by 180 runs on first innings following a total of 587 built on captain Shubman Gill’s superb 269.
And they had extended that advantage to 244 runs at the close, with India 64-1 in their second innings.
Yashasvi Jaiswal looked in superb touch while making 28 including six fours before the left-handed opener was lbw to a full-length ball from England first-change Josh Tongue.
A visibly angry Stoke was adamant India had taken too long to request a review but, fortunately for England, replays upheld the original decision in their favour.
England resumed on 77-3, with Joe Root and Brook — the world’s two top-ranked Test batter — 18 not out and 30 not out respectively.
But it was not long before Root glanced fast bowler Siraj to wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.
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And the very next ball, Stokes was undone by a superb rising delivery from Siraj that he edged behind, with England now 84-5.
It was the first golden duck of all-rounder Stokes’ 113-Test career.
But the 24-year-old Smith ‘survived’ the hat-trick by straight-driving Siraj for four.
It was the start of a blistering 80-ball hundred that included 14 fours and three sixes as Smith joined a select group of batters to have made 100 runs before lunch in a session of Test cricket.
India had rested Bumrah, the world’s number one ranked Test bowler, in order to protect the fast bowler’s fitness in a series where he is expected to feature in just three out of five matches.
But in his absence, Smith smashed 22 runs in a single over from paceman Prasidh Krishna, including a six and four fours.
Jamie Smith, showing no obvious ill effects from the strain of keeping wicket for 151 overs in India’s first innings, cover-drove recalled spinner Washington Sundar’s first two balls for four.
Consecutive fours off experienced left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja in the last over before lunch, a straight drive followed by a sweep, saw Smith complete an astounding century.
Brook, 91 not out at the interval went to a hundred after giving his wicket away on 99 in the first Test.
And when he later cut Jadeja for a single it was the fifth time in his nine Test hundreds that Brook had exceeded 150.
But Deep eventually broke through with the new ball by bowling Brook with a fine delivery that darted back off the seam.
Deep also removed Chris Woakes — who has a Test century to his credit – for five on the Warwickshire all-rounder’s home ground.
He had previously reduced England to 13-2 on Thursday by dismissing Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope for ducks in consecutive deliveries.
Smith smashed Deep for six over long-on to raise England’s 400 but Siraj cleaned up the tail as Brydon Carse, Tongue and Shoaib Bashir failed to manage a run between them.
READ: Jamie Smith rewrites record books with sublime knock against India
