England were all at sea against the mastery of India spinner Kuldeep Yadav, whose fourth five-wicket haul reduced the visitors to 194 for eight at tea on day one of the fifth Test here on Thursday.
Kuldeep engineered a middle-order collapse that saw England lose three wickets for no run and all of a sudden they found themselves reeling at 175 for six from three down on the same score.
The left-arm wrist spinner, who struck twice in the morning, added three more wickets to his tally in the afternoon while R Ashwin took two.
England lost six wickets in the session for 94 runs.
Kuldeep could have got rid of Zak Crawley (79 off 108) on the second ball of the day but India opted against DRS for a catch.
But the 29-year-old spinner did not have to wait long thereafter as he got one to turn massively from the imaginary fifth stump to shatter the England opener’s leg-stump. Both the inward drift and the sharp turn led to Crawley’s dismissal.
Jonny Bairstow (29 off 19), who like Ashwin is playing his 100th Test, showed plenty of intent in his innings but could not last long. Like the other batters, he could not read Kuldeep from his hands and got a faint outside edge off a googly.