Finance
On Day Two of the fourth Test match between England and India at the JSCA International Stadium here on Saturday, spinners Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley were instrumental in helping their country take a dominating lead at stumps.
Resuming at 302/7 in the morning, England amassed 51 runs in the process, led by 58 by Ollie Robinson, who also achieved his first half-century in this format. But in a span of 17 balls, they lost their final three wickets for six runs, two of which were taken by Ravindra Jadeja, who finished as India’s top bowler with 4-67.
From being 112/5 at lunch on Day One, England will be satisfied to get a 350-plus total, with Joe Root remaining unbeaten on 122. Bashir, playing just his second Test, took 4-84 and bowled an unbroken spell of 31 overs to get his first four-wicket haul in red-ball cricket, while Hartley scalped 2-47 on a deteriorating pitch to leave India in trouble at 219/7 and trail England by 134 runs.
Things could have been worse for the hosts if not for the unbroken 42-run stand, off 106 balls, between Dhruv Jurel (30 not out) and Kuldeep Yadav (17 not out). In response to England’s 353, India lost captain Rohit Sharma early after he pushed forward to a length ball from James Anderson and got a healthy nick behind to keeper Ben Foakes.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, the leading run-scorer in the series, was cautious against fast bowlers early on and even survived an outside edge due to playing with soft hands off Robinson. He then played back-to-back fours -– via drive and whip off his pads -– against Anderson, before giving the same treatment to Robinson in the last over before lunch break.
Post lunch, Shubman Gill began by effortlessly driving Bashir through extra cover for four, followed by flicking and driving off Anderson for a brace of boundaries. Jaiswal lofted Bashir over long-on for six and had a narrow escape when Ollie Robinson extracted an outside edge, which was dying on keeper Ben Foakes.
Foakes felt he cleanly took the catch, but replays showed the ball bouncing before going into the gloves. Gill brought his fast hands into play by cracking a cut and guiding off Robinson for back-to-back fours, before being trapped LBW by Bashir via a delivery, which turned sharply to beat the inside edge.
Gill went for a review, but replays showed the ball would hit the stumps, bringing an end to his 82-run partnership with Jaiswal, who got his fourth half-century of the series with a single off Hartley. Rajat Patidar impressed with his dabs, flicks and punches to collect four boundaries quickly, but fell to Bashir after being trapped LBW by a delivery that skidded on from outside off.
The umpire’s decision was affected by the ball striking Patidar’s leg-stump, as demonstrated by the DRS, ending Patidar’s stay at 17. Ravindra Jadeja survived an LBW review on the previous delivery and then hit back-to-back leg-side sixes against Hartley.
However, before the tea break, Bashir claimed his third wicket when he produced a good-length top-spinner with extra bounce to catch Jadeja’s inside edge. The ball was thrown to Ollie Pope at short leg. Sarfaraz Khan survived two run-out opportunities to start the fourth session, and Jaiswal came back from 54 not out with three boundaries off Bashir.
Eventually, the off-spinner got the last laugh when he managed to keep the short ball low enough that Jaiswal, who was cutting backwards, only saw the delivery hitting the toe-end of the bat and crash into middle stump. Hartley increased India’s troubles by enticing Sarfaraz Khan to go for a drive and had the outside edge caught by a diving Joe Root at slip.
Hartley had his second wicket when he trapped Ravichandran Ashwin LBW with the one that kept low and hit him straight on the pads. Ashwin went for the review, but replays showed the ball hitting the leg stump, with impact on the umpire’s call. Jurel and Kuldeep hit two boundaries each to keep India afloat till the stumps arrived.
Earlier, Day Two began with Robinson resuming from 31 not out and flicking Mohammed Siraj for a boundary. Shortly after, India took the second new ball, but Robinson continued to churn out boundaries –- cutting, driving and pulling Akash Deep for three boundaries.
Robinson got his maiden Test fifty with a sweep off Jadeja over square-leg going for four. But the left-arm spinner had the last laugh as Robinson attempted to reverse-sweep which brushed his glove before going through to Jurel, who took a sharp low catch, ending his 102-run partnership with Root.
After three balls, Bashir attempted a daring slog off Jadeja, but backward point broke the leading edge. England’s first innings was dominated by the spin display from Bashir and Hartley, with Root’s 122 not out being the high point of the innings. Anderson was the final man to go, having been declared LBW while trying to sweep Jadeja.
Brief scores:
England 353 all out in 104.5 overs (Joe Root 122 not out, Ollie Robinson 58; Ravindra Jadeja 4-67, Akash Deep 3-83) lead India 219/7 in 73 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 73, Shubman Gill 38; Shoaib Bashir 4-84, Tom Hartley 2-47) by 134 runs
Source:IANS
