After five sessions of nip and tuck cricket England’s captain and then their opening pair put them into pole position in the Test match and the series with big wickets and fast runs.
A five-fer for Ben Stokes and a 166 run partnership in 32 overs from Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett restricted and then took a huge bite out of the 358 India had taken over four sessions to compile.
Indeed when India were finally bowled out after 114.1 tough overs it seemed like the match was in the balance. That notion was dispelled within an hour with England racing to 77/0 by tea.
India came out after the break in desperate need of wickets but the bowling was as poor as it has been all series with England accelerating towards and past 100.
It had taken India 69 overs to hit 24 boundaries while England managed to do that in under 29 with Shubman Gill unable to stem the flow of runs at either end.
By the time England lost a wicket India were looking bereft and Crawley was furious to edge Ravindra Jadeja to slip for 84. He was nowhere near as frustrated as Duckett (94) though who fell within twenty runs for the 7th time in Tests.
It meant for a relatively nervy last half an hour with Bumrah bowling his best spell of the day but Joe Root and Ollie Pope survived the day with England 225/2 at stumps trailing by 133 runs.
It couldn’t have felt any different at the start of play.
Unlike the sun which bathed England’s batters throughout their innings, dark cloud once again greeted the players onto the field.
India were 264/4 overnight and questions surrounded Rishabh Pant. The BCCI hadn’t released an official statement about his fitness but Indian newspapers had run with the story that he was to miss the rest of the series with a fractured foot.
England took the second new ball straight away and immediately got Jadeja (20), who had been a constant thorn in England’s side throughout the series with an average of 86, undone by a superb slip catch by Harry Brook backing up a brilliant bit of bowling from Jofra Archer (3/73).
Archer at times seemed to be extracting too much movement with the bat being beaten regularly and with Pant seemingly out of the match it felt like England were in a good position to bowl India out before the lunch break.
However Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur combined well. It took 19 deliveries for Sundar to get off the mark but Thakur picked up where he left off with a couple of big shots through the covers.
Ultimately this proved to be his downfall in the end as he sliced to a diving Duckett at Gully for 41 and it was then that everyone realised that Pant would bat on.
He took a while to make it to the crease but alongside Sundar the two put on 23 before the off-spinner perished caught at long leg for 27.
That wicket was Ben Stokes (5/72) fourth of the innings and he duly picked up his fifth three balls later when the debutant Kamboj edged to the keeper for 0.
With just Jasprit Bumrah (4) and Mohammed Siraj (5*) to come this signalled more intent from Pant (54) who deposited Archer into the stands before losing his off stump in much the same way as at Lord’s.
India’s tail was wrapped up soon after with most watching on expecting runs to continue to be hard to come by but the weather lifted, the ball didn’t move as much, and India bowled terribly to allow England to get off to a flier.