Sam Curran reprised his rescue act at Edgbaston, driving his side towards a serviceable total with a belligerent 78

The Report by Andrew Miller30-Aug-2018India 19 for 0 (Rahul 11*, Dhawan 3*) trail England 246 (Curran 78, Bumrah 3-46) by 227 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsTo think that Sam Curran, Man of the Match in that humdinging first Test at Edgbaston, was dropped for England’s Trent Bridge defeat for the sake of the team balance. On what had been shaping up as another ignominious day for England’s batting at the Ageas Bowl, Curran reprised his rescue act in that first match, driving his side towards a serviceable total of 246 by ignoring the match situation and the ineptitude of his senior team-mates.By the time he was last man out for a Test-best 78, bowled on the hoick against R Ashwin with only James Anderson for company, Curran’s efforts had disrupted the dominance of India’s rampant swing-based attack, exceeded the output of England’s entire rejigged top six, and turned a disastrous mid-afternoon scoreline of 86 for 6 into something for England’s own bowlers to rub up against. India capped their day by calmly negotiating four overs before the close, but with Anderson in particular making the new ball talk as ever, a first-innings dogfight remains a likely scenario.Much like England’s inexplicable descent into blind panic in this series, having cruised to a 2-0 series lead at Lord’s a fortnight ago, there was little warning of the calamity in store when Joe Root won a useful toss under clear skies and chose to take first use of a blameless surface that both captains agreed looked like the best batting wicket of the series.And yet, by the time Keaton Jennings – so desperate for runs after his stay of execution from Nottingham – had been bamboozled by Jasprit Bumrah’s lesser-spotted inswinger and evicted for a strokeless four-ball duck, the tone of England’s morning had been set.Sam Curran raised his second fifty of the series•AFPIndia, to their credit, were outstanding and attacking from the outset, harpooning England’s batsmen with aggressive full lengths and an unrelenting command of the swinging Dukes ball that brought to mind the 80-over menace that made England’s 2005 attack so formidable.Joe Root, promoted to No. 3 and seemingly burdened by the need to be both anchor and enforcer, endured a ghastly 14-ball stay – he survived a stone-dead review for lbw when replays showed Bumrah had overstepped, but had no answer to his first ball from Ishant Sharma, another hooping inswinger that nailed him on the front pad and persuaded him to burn a review out of desperation. And when Bumrah atoned for his error by serving up a beautifully shaping outswinger that Jonny Bairstow grazed to the keeper, England were 28 for 3 and in very dire straits indeed.If there was a positive about England’s efforts in the first hour, it was in the discipline and confidence of Alastair Cook, who lined himself up on off stump to counter Bumrah’s javelin-like movement and looked as calm in his defiance as he has appeared all summer. But then, on 17 from 54 balls (a perfectly acceptable attrition rate in the circumstances) he lined up a limp cut to a wide ball from Hardik Pandya, and scuffed a top-edge to Virat Kohli in the gully. It was the dismissal of a man who had allowed his fabled concentration to waver, another uncharacteristic blip in a flat-lining summer.Not for the first time this month, England turned to Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes for salvation, and briefly the pair delivered in hauling their side to lunch and beyond in a 33-run stand. But Buttler, whose belligerence at Trent Bridge had met the desperate needs of their hour in that innings, misjudged the requirement on this occasion when, on 21, he flung a hard-handed drive at Mohammed Shami for Kohli to pluck a superbly sharp chance at third slip. Stokes, calm and collected for as long as he survived, was less at fault for his dismissal for 23 – another howling inswinger from Shami nailed him on the shin from round the wicket – but his review was once again optimistic as England found themselves six-down inside 35 overs.Enter Curran, with England’s series lead, no less, in the balance. Alongside him was another of England’s recalled allrounders, Moeen Ali, whose 40 from 85 balls was another vignette of an innings, packed with languid aggression, context-free boshing and ultimately a scuffed dismissal, as Ashwin ended a vital stand of 81 by luring him into a top-edged slog-sweep to square leg – a mode of dismissal that Nathan Lyon had turned into something of a trademark during the Ashes.But if anything, Moeen’s departure clicked Curran into overdrive. He plays every innings with the defiance of a younger brother in the back garden – undaunted by the more exalted reputations around him, and seemingly ecstatic simply to get a chance to have a swing.India kept chipping away as Curran grew into his innings – Adil Rashid was nailed lbw by another big inswinger from Sharma, so big in fact that it would have missed leg stump (there were no reviews left to reprieve him) – but with Stuart Broad loitering optimistically for his 31-ball 17, Curran danced at the crease, kept out the good balls and lambasted the rare bad ones, and even reprised his feat at Edgbaston by romping to his fifty with another six – this time over wide long-on, to go alongside his inside-out clout over extra cover three weeks ago.Curran’s self-admonishment in the wake of his eventual dismissal was telling – he clearly believed that a maiden Test hundred had been within his reach when he took one swing too many against Ashwin. But it wasn’t impossible, given the swing-dominance of England’s own bowlers, that he had already done enough to keep the match in the balance. Curran himself is sure to find some deviation through the air when his turn comes. Much like his batting, he usually finds a way.