India's bowling finally turned the corner after listless performances at Lord's and Trent Bridge, and it all began with their inspired display in the afternoon session. The uneven bounce in the pitch was a significant factor, but more important was the fact that the Indians bowled with far greater discipline. Before lunch, the Indian bowlers served up a generous 25 balls which were full in length – that's 22% of all deliveries bowled in that session. Zaheer Khan was the worst culprit, sending down 10 of those. The good-length percentage was an ordinary 63.

In the afternoon session, Anil Kumble, Ajit Agarkar and Zaheer homed in on a good length with far more consistency, bowling 80.1% of the time in that area. Only 13 out of 156 deliveries were pitched up to the bat – a measly 8.3%. Once they landed the ball in the right spot, the vagaries of the Headingley track did the rest.

The improved bowling performance meant that the comfort levels for the batsmen reduced dramatically. Michael Vaughan and Robert Key had negotiated the period before lunch with little alarm – out of the 114 balls they faced, they were in control of 100 of them, an in-control factor of 88%. In the afternoon session, the corresponding figure for England's batsmen came down to 77%.

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