Ranchi, Feb 26 India need 74 more runs to win the fourth Test over England at Ranchi, but lost captain Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rajat Patidar in the first session of day four’s play at the JSCA International Stadium on Monday.
At lunch, India are 118/3, with Shubman Gill and Ravindra Jadeja batting at 18 and three respectively. Resuming from 40/0, it was a gripping session where India were initially ahead, thanks to Rohit’s fifty and him sharing an 84-run opening stand with Jaiswal.
But Joe Root, Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley took a scalp each as India slipped from 84/0 to 100/3. Gill and Jadeja looked tentative, but managed to hold their ground for 45 minutes till lunch arrived.
In the morning, Rohit took India past fifty by timing a lofted flick off Anderson over wide long-on for six. He and Jaiswal would take a boundary off Bashir, before the latter survived an lbw appeal off Hartley.
Jaiswal collected a few fours via reverse-sweep, sweep and cut before his attempt to clear extra cover off Root resulted in a thick edge caught by forward diving short third man. Rohit reached his fifty off 69 balls with a brace off Hartley, but was stumped on 55 after being drawn out of the crease by the flighted and wide ball from the left-arm spinner.
Bashir joined the wicket-takers column by getting some turn and drift to catch the inside edge of Patidar and the ball lobbed to short leg taking a catch to his right, with the batter dismissed for a six-ball duck.
From there, England kept Gill and Jadeja on a tight leash and would fancy their chances for an unlikely win after taking three wickets in 16 balls of the morning session to derail India’s morning. India, on the other hand, would wish for Gill and Jadeja, followed by Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel to steer the hosts’ to a series-sealing win.
Brief Scores: England 353 and 145 lead India 307 and 118/3 in 37 overs (Rohit Sharma 55, Yashasvi Jaiswal 37; Joe Root 1-21, Shoaib Bashir 1-40) by 74 runs.
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