England face a battle against both India’s batters and their own bodies as they attempt to keep their opponents’ lead under control on the fourth day at Edgbaston, with Harry Brook – who has spent fewer than 15 of the 253.3 overs so far bowled off the field – describing fatigue unlike any he has experienced in his career as he put together the 303-run partnership with Jamie Smith that rescued the team’s first innings.
Brook had scored 157 when he was struck by cramp that ran down “the whole right side” of his body, and added only one more run before he was dismissed by Akash Deep soon after the second new ball had been taken. That precipitated a collapse as England slumped from 387 for five to 407 all out.
“I’ve never had it before,” Brook said of the cramping. “It was probably the death of me at the end. I was knackered. It probably didn’t help that we fielded for two full days and then I batted for nearly a full day. It wasn’t ideal. I’m very tired now.”
Between them Brook and Smith accounted for 84% of England’s first-innings runs, scoring 158 and 184 respectively when six of their teammates got ducks and none scored more than 22. India then reached stumps on 64 for one to hold a lead of 244. “Hopefully we’ve clawed ourselves back into the game,” Brook said. “I just tried to bat as long as I could. If I hadn’t got out we wouldn’t be in this situation now, but we saw [at Headingley] last week how quickly it can change. India are in the driving seat but hopefully we can put pressure with early wickets and make them crumble.”
Brook said he was motivated by memories of the first match of the series, when he was dismissed without scoring in England’s second innings – “I was off the back of a golden duck so I just wanted to get off the mark,” he said of his somewhat wild approach when he first came in on Thursday – and for 99, having been dropped while yet to score, in their first.
“I was definitely hungry to get a hundred today,” he said. “Obviously with the situation of the game, we were behind the eight-ball and to try to get the momentum to swing back in our favour, along with Smudge, was a good moment.”
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Having watched India run through their lower order with the second new ball England struggled to have a similar impact when they had one, making a solitary breakthrough in 13 overs as Yashasvi Jaiswal was trapped lbw by Josh Tongue. “The Indians bowled really well with it,” Brook said. “They came wide on the crease, attacked the stumps, kept all three modes of dismissal in play, and they made it do just enough to be able to get them wickets at the end there. We didn’t get it quite right tonight. Hopefully we can do that tomorrow morning. There’s plenty of wickets to be had out there.”
