Stokes stars as England seal thrilling win

England 287 (Root 80, Bairstow 70, Ashwin 4-62, Shami 3-64) and 180 (Curran 63, Ishant 5-51, Ashwin 3-59) beat India 274 (Kohli 149, Curran 4-74) and 110 for 5 (Kohli 51, Stokes 4-40) by 31 runs

Birmingham: England held their nerve to complete a tense 31-run victory over India in the first Test on an enthralling fourth morning at Edgbaston, Birmingham on Saturday.

India - resuming on 110-5 in pursuit of 194 - were bowled out for 162 as tension mounted among an increasingly boisterous crowd.

James Anderson removed Dinesh Karthik with the sixth ball of the day before Ben Stokes produced a brilliant over to dismiss captain Virat Kohli for 51 and Mohammed Shami.

The all-rounder sealed victory by having Hardik Pandya caught at first slip to finish with 4-40.

Both of captain Joe Root's gambles paid off: Stokes struck twice in his first over and recalled leg-spinner Adil Rashid trapped Ishant Sharma in his first over.

Stokes in particular bowled with aggression and intelligence, although he is set to miss the second Test at Lord's as his court case for affray begins on Monday.

While India came up short, their performance was a far cry from their dismal tour four years ago and bodes well for the remainder of what promises to be a keenly contested five-Test series.

Scores	Upcoming	Results
South Africa vs Pakistan - 3rd ODI 4th Test - Australia v India - December 26-30, 23:30 GMT 1st Test - Zimbabwe v Afghanistan - December 26-30, 07:30 GMT 3rd ODI - Zimbabwe v Afghanistan at Harare Afghanistan won by 8 wickets (with 139 balls remaining) 3rd T20I - West Indies v Bangladesh at St Vincent Bangladesh won by 80 runs

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