BEN Stokes’ expression said it all. For the second time in as many first-innings counterattacks, all he could do was shrug his shoulders and marvel at the genius of the man who’d just had his measure, as Jasprit Bumrah cut short another spirited display from England’s captain, to cap a performance that transcended the conditions that he’d been granted.

In the midst of India’s surprise loss in Hyderabad, Bumrah’s six wickets across two innings had been a warning as to where the true threat in India’s attack would lie. So it proved at Visakhapatnam on what had been touted as a spinners’ paradise, as Bumrah piled that same haul into one sensational display, springing the trap on England’s batters with the insuperable figures of 6 for 45 in 15.5 overs.

All six of those came in the space of 71 deliveries across his final three micro-spells – a howling, hustling display of express-paced reverse swing in which the cream of England’s batting were simply bereft of answers. Joe Root’s audible groan as he snicked an outswinger to first slip, having aligned himself to Bumrah’s initial shape into his pads, confirmed the extent to which even England’s kingpin had been outplayed, but it was Bumrah’s subsequent extraction of England’s first-Test hero Ollie Pope – blasted from the crease by an unplayable inswinging yorker – which proved that, just occasionally, the danger is too acute even for this team to keep running towards it.

It was a one-man show to match that which Yashasvi Jaiswal had completed for India in the morning session, as he converted his overnight 179 to an epic 209 from 290 balls, in an innings in which no other batter passed 34. Though Bumrah was backed up in timeless flat-deck fashion by the wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav – whose sharp-turning wiles claimed three of the other four wickets to fall – the extent to which he up-ended this contest is perhaps best expressed by the serenity of England’s progress outside of his killer burst.

While Zak Crawley was in command of England’s tempo, in a long-levered knock of 76 from 78 balls that included a 16-run dispatching of Bumrah’s fourth and final new-ball over, England seemed on course to make India pay for another first innings in which they’d failed to bat their opponents out of contention. With James Anderson rolling back the years once more to finish a majestic performance with 3 for 47 in 25 overs, it seemed a total of 396 was very much game on. In hindsight, of course, the sight of one masterful swing bowler transcending the conditions should have been taken as proof that another would surely follow suit.

Nevertheless, England gave it a good go for as long as they realistically could. On a surface offering increasingly steepling bounce, England were obliged to tweak their game-plans, with the reverse-sweep that was such a feature at Hyderabad now fraught with danger and rarely unfurled. And in Crawley’s case, that meant using his 6’5″ reach to smother any danger at source, with full-faced drives to the straighter deliveries and pounding slog-sweeps when the bowlers strayed outside off.