Set batters found themselves undone when they least expected it. Ben Stokes’ off stump was off to the races immediately after he hit a boundary. Root, on 104, turned lead-footed all of a sudden, which created a gap between bat and pad for Bumrah to hurtle through.Shubman Gill, who came into this game with 585 runs in four innings, was snapped up for just 16. Jamie Smith went to lunch having rescued England from 271 for 7 to 355 for 7 but as soon as he came back, Mohammed Siraj found his outside edge. He celebrated the wicket by signalling the number 20, like many footballers have done this week to pay tribute to Diogo Jota, the 28-year-old Liverpool forward who died in a car crash in Spain.

There was one who proved adept, so much that the very concept of dismissal started to look remote. Rahul made 53 not out off 113 balls and went to stumps unbeaten. This innings was built on his discipline and his judgment outside the off stump and his alertness for scoring opportunities when England shifted their lines straighter. Equally, his focus stood out. Archer tested him with a 142 kph bouncer. Rahul was surprised by it – his feet off the floor, his balance shot to hell and yet even in that vulnerable state he was able to get his hands over the ball and cushion its journey back into the ground. There was another example of his defensive skills in the next over itself, when Stokes went wide of the wicket to maximise the away movement that he gets. Rahul was aware of what the bowler was trying to do and he was very careful to present a straight bat instead of being sucked in by the angle and offering a closed one.

Rishabh Pant batted through injury. Nair almost got his redemption but fell 10 short of a half-century. England overloaded Gill. Targeting him with a bouncer barrage armed with five men on the leg side. Coaxing him across his stumps to bring lbw into play. Filling up the front of the wicket with catchers and also blockers that prevented easy singles. The Indian captain lost his patience this time, attempted to find loopholes, like backing away to cut a short ball way down leg and didn’t see his wicket coming. Chris Woakes, with the keeper up to the stumps, switched up the play and went for his outside edge. He got it. England went to stumps with a lead that looks stronger for this bit of enterprise.

A great many things happened on Friday, even though only 72.3 of the scheduled 90 overs were possible, and the most memorable were the work of a fast bowler who has turned modern-day cricket into a kindergarten playground. Nobody really came up to Bumrah’s level – he was getting the ball to swing one way and seam the other and four different batters could do nothing more than just give up their stumps to him.

Bumrah rested at Edgbaston so that he could play at Lord’s. He wanted to play here to get a five-wicket haul and a place on the honour’s board. When he did, he was merely relieved. Siraj had to act as puppet master, grabbing his new-ball partner’s hand and raising it aloft while the Indians in the crowd cheered. Kapil Dev was calmly brushed aside. He is no longer the Indian with the most five fors away from home. In the middle of all this, there was a small victory for the visitors when Gill secured his first successful review on tour to get rid of Woakes.

India continued to challenge the umpires, their irritation sparked by a second new ball that needed to be changed – a mere 10.3 overs into its use – and the replacement looking much the worse for wear. Gill spent the entire morning drinks break with umpires Paul Reiffel and Sharfuddoula voicing his dissatisfaction, which had to have played a role in the officials eventually switching out even the replacement ball, after eight overs.

Away in the background, Smith, who was dropped by Rahul on 5, just kept his head down and did his thing. Once more, he led an England lower-order recovery mission, his skill-set perfectly suited to the task. A 52-ball half-century was the result of a man concentrating on the job at hand while the opposition was too busy fretting about what could have been. India tried to forget about Smith and blow away the other end, but that didn’t work either. Brydon Carse was batting well enough to hit Akash Deep on the up through the covers and getting down on bent knee to slash Bumrah past point. He completed an entertaining maiden half-century in Tests as England’s last three wickets added 116 runs.

Brief scores: [Day 2 stumps]   
India 145 for 3 in 43 overs (KL Rahul 53*, Karun Nair 40, Rishabh Pant 19*; Ben Stokes 1-16) trail  England 387 in 112.3 overs (Ollie Pope 44, Joe Root 104, Ben Stokes 44, Jamie Smith 51, Brydon Carse 56; Jasprit  Bumrah 5-74, Mohammed Siraj 2-85, Nitish Kumar Reddy 2-62 ) by 242 runs

[Cricinfo]