India took a firm grip of this Test by prising out four England wickets before lunch on day four, leaving Joe Root and Ben Stokes to patch things together at 98 for 4 – a lead of just 98 after both sides posted 387 first time round.
The tone was set by Mohammed Siraj, whose seven overs cost a miserly 11 runs and brought two important blows. Ben Duckett, keen to resume the previous evening’s counter-attack, dragged a pull straight to Jasprit Bumrah at mid-on and copped an animated farewell from the bowler. Soon afterwards Ollie Pope was pinned on the crease; Siraj’s roar was briefly muted by the umpire’s not-out call, but India’s review showed the ball hitting middle and leg.
Bumrah, wicketless but consistently threatening, found variable bounce outside Zak Crawley’s off stump and kept things uncomfortable. Crawley’s duel with Shubman Gill – fuelled by England’s late-evening dawdling on Saturday – added a little edge but produced no runs of note.
Nitish Kumar Reddy replaced Bumrah and repeated his first-innings success against Crawley, tempting a loose drive that Yashasvi Jaiswal snaffled at gully.
Harry Brook briefly lifted the mood, ramping Akash Deep for consecutive fours before punishing a full ball straight back over the seamer’s head for six. Akash Deep replied perfectly: full, straight, and just quick enough to sneak behind Brook’s legs and flatten middle. From 70 for 3 England slipped to 85 for 4, the crowd quietening with them.
Root, 17 not out, looked as calm as ever. Stokes, on 2, had hardly faced a ball when the interval arrived, but his presence remains England’s best hope of a workable target.
“It’s still a decent surface if we bat properly,” Stokes said on his way off, speaking more to himself than anyone in particular. India, though, can smell opportunity. As Siraj put it simply: “Hit the length, stay patient – wickets come.” Those wickets have come, and England now walk the tightrope.
