England are in control of the fourth Test against India on Day 2 with the hosts at 219/7 after Yashasvi Jaiswal once again made his wicket count, top-scoring for the team at 73. The hosts though still trail England's first innings score by 134 runs.
At Stumps, wicket-keeper Dhruv Jurel and Kuldeep Yadav were holding fort at the crease, their partnership worth 42. For England, off-spinner Shoaib Bashir has proven key with the wickets of four among India's top five batters earlier in the day.
England started the day on 302/7 with Joe Root on 106 and Ollie Robinson on 31. The pair added another 51 runs on the morning, with Robinson scoring his maiden half century (58) before Ravindra Jadeja wrapped up the tail, picking up the last three England wickets for six runs, within a span of 17 balls and England were bowled out for 353.
Ravindra Jadeja finished with 4/67 while debutant Akash Deep ended on 3/83 following his three top order wickets on Day 1.
Day two’s morning began with Robinson, resuming on 31, 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 Ravindra 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 keeper Dhruv Jurel, who took a sharp low catch, ending his 102-run partnership with Root.
Three balls later, Shoaib Bashir went for a wild slog off Jadeja, but the leading edge was snapped by backward point. Anderson was the last man to fall after being adjudged lbw in an attempt to sweep Jadeja, with Root’s 122 not out being the highlight of England’s first innings.
India's opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal lasted all of 17 deliveries before the Indian skipper was caught behind on 2, off Shoaib Bashir. Yashasvi continued his good showing in the series with an unbeaten fifty but off-spinner Shoaib Bashir’s triple strike meant India were four down at the end of the second session - the score reading 131/4, the hosts trailing England by 222 runs.
It was a session where India were comfortably placed at 86/1 at one point, but slipped to 130/4, as Bashir made the most out of a pitch assisting spinners to take 3/32.
The session began with Shubman Gill effortlessly driving Bashir through extra cover for four, followed by flicking and driving off James Anderson for a brace of boundaries. Jaiswal continued his solid show by lofting 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 Ollie 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 ball hitting stumps, bringing an end to his 82-run partnership with Jaiswal, who got his fourth fifty plus score of the series with a single off Tom Hartley.
Rajat Patidar impressed with his dabs, flicks and punches to collect four boundaries quickly, but fell to Bashir after being trapped lbw by the one which skidded on from outside off. The DRS showed ball hitting leg-stump, with the impact on umpire’s call, meaning Patidar’s stay ended at 17.
Ravindra Jadeja smashed back-to-back leg-side sixes off Hartley after surviving an lbw review on the previous delivery. But Bashir bowled a top-spinner from the good length and had some extra bounce to catch Jadeja's inside edge and the ball lobbed to Ollie Pope at short leg, giving him his third wicket.
India went to Tea at 131/4.
The final session began with Sarfaraz Khan surviving two run-out chances, followed by Yashasvi Jaiswal, resuming from 54 not out, taking three boundaries off Bashir.
The off-spinner eventually had the last laugh by getting the short ball to stay low and Jaiswal, moving backwards for a cut, only saw the delivery hit the toe-end of the bat and crash into the middle stump. Hartley added to 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 was hitting the leg stump, with impact on the umpire’s call. Jurel and Kuldeep hit two boundaries each to keep India afloat till stumps.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)