By: Pramod Thomas
SPINNER Shoaib Bashir claimed three wickets in the post-lunch session to reduce India to 131-4 replying to England’s first innings total of 353 on day two of the fourth test on Saturday (24).
Joe Root led England’s remarkable turnaround from a precarious 112-5 with an unbeaten 122 before the tourists were all out.
Bashir’s three-wicket burst helped England, down 2-1 in the five-test series, nose ahead in the contest.
Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal led India’s fightback with a fluent 54 not out, his fourth 50-plus score in seven innings, which include two double-hundreds.
Sarfaraz Khan, who smashed twin fifties in his debut test in Rajkot, was batting on one with India trailing by 222 runs.
Earlier, Root stayed put to drag England past the 350-mark with his 31st test hundred, which included 10 fours.
Tailender Ollie Robinson raced to his maiden test fifty, hitting a six and nine fours in his counter-attacking 58.
Ravindra Jadeja (4-67) dismissed Robinson and Bashir in the same over and trapped James Anderson in his next.
India wobbled early in their reply after Rohit, having made two, edged Anderson to be caught behind.
Jaiswal was fluent at the other end, though, and the nearest England got to dismissing him was when Ben Foakes grabbed an edge. But replays confirmed the ball had touched ground before the wicketkeeper collected it.
Shubman Gill (38) got off to a decent start but could not capitalise on it, falling lbw to Bashir.
Rajat Patidar (17) fell in the same manner to the lanky off-spinner, who also had Jadeja (12) caught at short leg.
(Reuters)
