England seamer Sam Curran took three wickets in eight balls to drag England back into a test match that had looked in danger of running away from them.
The 20-year-old left armer bowled a superb spell as India fell from 50-0 to 59-3 before lunch on the second day at Edgbaston.
Curran actually began the day with the bat in hand, as England looked to add to their overnight score of 285-9 but he and James Anderson lasted just 10 balls before Curran was caught behind.
England looked dangerous early on but after Ben Stokes missed an excellent early chance to run out Murali Vijay and Joe Root had wasted a review off Anderson, the opening pair of Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan settled and cruised towards India’s fifty.
But where new ball stalwarts Anderson and Stuart Broad had failed, Curran suddenly found a breakthrough, producing an inswinger that rattled off Vijay’s pads. Again the umpire was unmoved but this time England used their review wisely and Vijay had to walk.
Just three balls later Curran was at it again, as the new batsman KL Rahul dangled at one and played a poor shot back onto his own stumps.
Then, right at the end of the 16th over, England and Curran had a third, this time Dhawan, who edged to Dawid Malan at second slip.
It almost got better for England when Virat Kohli got a thick edge on an Anderson delivery but Jos Buttler couldn’t quite grab onto what would’ve been an outstanding diving catch, and India made it through to lunch without further loss.
