England and India's compelling first Test in the balance after Sam Curran's half-century

India (274 & 110-5) need 84 more runs to beat England (287 & 180): You simply didn’t want to take your eyes off the first Test: not for a drink, not for a stroll, not for a moment

The skies hung low and menacing over Edgbaston. Even the clouds wanted a closer look.

You simply didn’t want to take your eyes off the first Test: not for a drink, not for a stroll, not for a moment. Out in the middle, Ben Stokes stamped his boots into the turf, exhorting his body for one last drop of effort. Virat Kohli shook out his sleeves with vim and violence, bracing his every twitching muscle to resist. The crowd, close to capacity, oiled and revved, roared their appreciation and offered up a song. It’s at times like these, perhaps, that we persuade ourselves that Test cricket is not simply the best form of the game, but the best form of any game.

Virat Kohli remained at the crease at close (AFP/Getty Images)

And at the end of it all… well, nobody knows. India five wickets down, 84 runs to get, the greatest batsman of his generation at the crease, the ball weaving around like a ferret. Day four may see no more than a couple of hours’ play, but in that time a match will be won and lost, and a series will be defined.

For this magnificent match has been a test of character far more than it has technique. Sam Curran isn’t the most skilful cricketer in the world. He may not be the most skilful cricketer in his family. But in the biggest match of his life, he has grown into the occasion rather than shrunk into himself. His barrelling innings of 63, rescuing England from 87-7 and certain defeat, was a feat of heart as much as art.

Ishant Sharma isn’t the fastest bowler in the world. He’s certainly not the most prolific, either. Over a decade in the Indian side, he’s been mocked as much as he’s been lauded. It may surprise you to learn that he’s not even 30 years old yet. But with the game on the line, he produced another masterclass in English conditions, finding bounce and late movement away from the left-hander, ripping out England’s middle order and seizing the advantage for India.

James Anderson celebrates the wicket of Ravi Ashwin (REUTERS)

This game has found out a few, too. Dawid Malan will step off the team bus on Saturday morning aware it may well be his last day in the job. After another failure with the bat, and another dropped catch in the slips, his career as an England Test batsman may be over. Joe Clarke and Ollie Pope will be in the frame to take his place at Lord’s, and after another sketchy innings in which he was teased by Ravi Ashwin and squared up by Sharma, he can have few complaints.

Malan was by no means solely culpable. After he went Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler all departed in a single Sharma over either side of lunch, and with England’s lead just 100, their chances of winning appeared to depart with them. The Edgbaston crowd, lubricated after a liquid lunch and determined to wring some good cheer from their day at the cricket, roared Curran on as he got a few fortuitous early boundaries away.

But as England built their total, Curran clouting Ashwin back over his head for six, clouting Sharma over cover for six more, India began to take nervous glances at the scoreboard. Umesh Yadav finally ended Curran’s insurgency on 63, but a target of 194 was – at the very least – something for England to bowl at.

Sam Curran celebrates his half-century (Action Images via Reuters)

Stuart Broad stepped up to the challenge. First a big in-ducker trapped Murali Vijay padding up. Shikhar Dhawan tried to drive his way out of trouble, and ended up driving his way – via the outside edge, Bairstow’s grateful gloves and a roar you could have heard in West Bromwich – back to the pavilion. Stokes produced a beauty – in-swinging, out-seaming – to pick off KL Rahul, before Ajinkya Rahane tried to cut Curran and got a thin under-edge. For the first time since the opening minutes of the day, England were favourites.

But Kohli, boosted by his first-innings heroics, stood his ground. Ravi Ashwin, promoted up the order, came and went, but with Karthik in tow and the crowd baying, Kohli saw India through to stumps, the pair taking just 12 runs off the last seven overs to set up a Saturday showdown.

Test cricket is one of those delicate flowers that perennially seems to be in crisis, even as it endures into its 15th decade. But I fancy that if you could transport Pelham Warner or Colin Cowdrey or Neville Cardus to Edgbaston in August 2018 and show them the view – a full stadium, a thrilling contest, cricket in whites thriving under greying skies – they might just be a little impressed. And then they would ask you where they could get a ticket for day four.