Credit: BCCI
On day four of the second Test of the five-match series, which is for the prestigious Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, India took complete control of the contest after setting a gigantic target of 608 runs for England to chase down. At Edgbaston in Birmingham, in the third session, Indian pacers reduced England to 72/3 in their second innings at the close of play, edging closer to a famous win with seven wickets remaining to take on the fight and final day, to level the series at 1-1.
At the start of day four, India were 64/1 in their second innings with KL Rahul and Karun Nair at the crease, leading by 244 runs. While Rahul went past yet another fifty on the tour to England before his dismissal, his non-striking partner Nair lost his wicket after getting off to a start, which meant that the hosts had a slight sniff of making a comeback in the contest despite being behind by nearly 300 runs.
But then, it was the Rishabh Pant show either side of the lunch break, scoring a fifty very quickly while putting up a 110-run stand for the fourth wicket along with captain Shubman Gill, to ensure that England were completely out of the Edgbaston Test. Pant’s innings came to an end after scoring 65 runs in just 58 balls with eight fours and three sixes while attempting to hit a six off Shoaib Bashir, only to have his bat flying to the leg side, while the ball ended up in the hands of Ben Duckett at long-off.
After the departure of Rishabh Pant back to the pavilion, Shubman Gill took control of the Indian second innings, stitching together a big stand of 175 runs for the sixth wicket with Ravindra Jadeja. During this impressive partnership, Gill became only the second Indian cricketer after Sunil Gavaskar to score a double century and a century in the same Test match.
Shubman Gill ended up scoring 161 runs in just 162 balls with 13 fours and eight sixes, while Ravindra Jadeja stayed unbeaten on 69 off 118 balls before the Indian captain declared their second innings for 427/6. In pursuit of the 608-run target, Mohammed Siraj got hit for a couple of crisp boundaries by Ben Duckett in his first over before dismissing Zak Crawley, who didn’t trouble the scorers.
Ben Duckett’s innings didn’t last long either as he was cleaned up by Akash Deep after he scored 25 off just 15 with five fours. Just a few overs later, the Indian right-arm pacer, who had his tail up, demolished the stumps of England legend Joe Root for six runs, beating him all ends up with a brilliant delivery aimed at the stumps, which held its line off the pitch.
At stumps on day four, England had Ollie Pope ( 22* off 44) and Harry Brook (15* off 15) at the crease at Egbaston in Birmingham after a scintillating display of bowling from Indian pacers.
