England edges out a win at Edgbaston

Obviously you saw what I did there.

Cricket Tests can be anti-climactic. If one of the sides takes a big lead early, there isn't much drama unless something freakish happens for the other team.  England has had some recent Test matches like that. Even in this format that can go five days, it's been obvious that the match was over by the second day.

The most recent Test match at Edgbaston, versus India, was not like that at all.

The basic setting was this;  in the second innings (each side bats twice), England's top batsmen went out early, with low scores.  But a valiant score of 63 by a newcomer named Sam Curran gave them a lead of 197 runs.  This is pretty good, but not great, especially when India has a star batsman named Kohli that scored 149 all by himself during India's first innings.  And at the end of the third day, Kohli was batting.  England needed 5 wickets to win, and India needed 84 runs to win.

So it basically came down to getting Kohli out.  Do that, and England had a chance.  If they couldn't get him out, then England would be toast before tea (well, that should be obvious).

They got him out.  The rest of India's batsmen couldn't rescue the game, and England won by a narrow (but not dangerously narrow) 31 runs.

It was a good one.   The next Test match starts on Thursday, August 9, at Lord's Cricket Ground.

England vs India, first Test day 4 RECAP: Ben Stokes shines as England claim victory by 31 runs at Edgbaston


Highlights from Day 4