Birmingham, United Kingdom (AFP)—Jamie Smith and Harry Brook both scored commanding hundreds as England hit back against India in the second Test at Edgbaston on Friday.

England were in dire straits at 84-5 early in the third day after Mohammed Siraj had taken two wickets in consecutive balls, removing star batsman Joe Root and dismissing captain Ben Stokes for a golden duck.

Yet at tea they were 355-5, still 232 runs behind India’s first-innings 567 built on captain Shubman Gill’s superb 269.

But the follow-on was now all but out of the equation as India looked to level this series at 1-1 after losing last week’s first Test at Headingley by five wickets

Smith was a Test-best 157 not out and Brook unbeaten on 140, with their sixth-wicket partnership worth 271.

When Smith came in on a hat-trick, England were over 500 runs behind.

But the 24-year-old, staying true to his attacking instincts, survived Siraj’s hat-trick delivery with an off-drive for four after he was criticised for holing out in England’s first innings in Leeds.

It was the first boundary in a blistering 80-ball hundred that included 14 fours and three sixes as Smith joined a select group of batsmen to have made 100 runs before lunch in a session of Test cricket.

Smith’s second hundred in his 12 Tests equalled Brook’s 80-ball effort against Pakistan at Rawalpindi in 2022.

Only Gilbert Jessop, with a hundred off 76 balls against Australia at the Oval back in 1902 and Jonny Bairstow, with a 77-ball ton against New Zealand at Trent Bridge three years ago have scored faster Test centuries for England, in terms of balls faced.

England resumed on 77-3, with the world’s two top-ranked Test batsmen in Root (18 not out) and Brook (30 not out) at the crease.