Tea, day four
India 471 & 298-4 (Rahul 120*, Pant 118, Carse 2-62)
England 465
India lead by 304 runs
Two contrasting hundreds from KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant have given India what feels like decisive control of the opening Test, the pair adding 195 for the fourth wicket and taking the visitors 304 in front by the interval.
Rahul’s 120 not out was all timing and tidy angles—202 balls of mostly orthodox cricket, punctuated by three painful blows on the bottom hand that he simply shook off. A push through extra cover for two brought up his ninth Test hundred, his sixth outside Asia as an opener. “It’s just about staying there long enough,” he told the host broadcaster. “If you do, the runs come.”
Pant, who began the day on nine, went through the gears in that familiar, slightly chaotic fashion. He sprinted from fifty to 95 in 25 balls, slowed, then clubbed Joe Root for four, six, four, and tried to repeat the trick against Shoaib Bashir. This time Zak Crawley held the skier at long-on, ending an 88-ball 118 that Ravi Shastri on commentary called “pure theatre”.
There was fortune. Harry Brook grassed Rahul on 55 at slip; Pant nicked through the vacant cordon on 31 and 49. Even Ben Stokes, diving full length at cover, could only palm a Pant cover-drive around the post when the keeper-batter was 75. “You need those breaks,” Pant admitted. “England bowlers asked plenty of questions.”
England’s quicks enjoyed the new ball in the morning. Brydon Carse produced a brute that leapt at Shubman Gill’s gloves and lobbed to short leg, breaking a stubborn stand and leaving India three down. But once the lacquer came off, the pitch flattened. Stokes rotated six bowlers without finding sustained control, and the second session leaked 145 runs in 27 overs.
Bashir did get his man, Pant, celebrating as if the game had turned. In truth the rookie off-spinner had already been deposited for back-to-back sixes and Rahul was content to milk him. Karun Nair’s reverse-swept four took the lead past 300 and drew an appreciative nod from Rahul, who simply carried on.
Former England captain Michael Atherton summed up the mood: “England aren’t out of this, but they’ll need something pretty special this evening.”
With two sessions left today and a full fifth day tomorrow, India have room to dictate. England, for all their recent fourth-innings heroics, face a long climb.
