Lunch, day five, Old Trafford: India 358 & 223-4 (Gill 103, Rahul 90) trail England 669 by 88 runs
England need six more wickets after Jofra Archer prised out Shubman Gill minutes before the interval, ending an 87-over vigil that had kept India in the contest – and the series – far longer than seemed likely on Saturday evening.
At the start of India’s second innings the tourists were 311 behind, facing what looked a three-day defeat. Gill, leading for the first time on this trip, instead produced a fourth hundred of the series, sharing 188 with KL Rahul and trimming the deficit below 100. It was patient, sometimes stubborn cricket, the kind that drags a Test into a deciding session.
The resistance finally cracked in the space of 40 tense minutes on Monday. Ben Stokes, shoulder sore and stride shortened by cramp the previous day, forced the initial opening. He thudded one into Rahul’s back pad – Hawk-Eye showing leg stump half-covered – and celebrated an lbw that broke the stand. “We spoke this morning about finding something,” Stokes said. “If it meant one big spell, so be it.”
Gill, on 92 at the time, was soon shelled by Ollie Pope at short cover, a fierce chance that burst through the palms. He reached three figures with a clip off his hip but never fully settled against the harder second-new-ball. Chris Woakes skimmed past the edge on occasion; Archer’s extra pace finally drew the mis-hit, Gill pushing at a back-of-a-length ball and feathering to Jamie Smith. “It was nice to get him before lunch – small margins in a game like this,” Archer noted.
India still have Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja to come, yet the surface – two-paced all match – continues to misbehave. Stokes found one leaping into Gill’s helmet, the next scuttling ankle-high. “There’s enough happening if we land it in the right spot,” Woakes explained during the break.
From England’s point of view the equation is straightforward: 88 ahead, six wickets to find, two sessions left. India require a near-perfect afternoon. As Gill walked off, head bowed but bat raised, he summed up the task: “We’ll keep fighting. There’s a lot of pride in that dressing-room.”
