Chennai: Shubman Gill (15*) and Cheteshwar Pujara (12*) held fort for India at the crease at the hosts ended the fourth day’s play at 39/1, 381 runs short of a victory in the first Test in Chennai on Monday.
In a day largely dominated by England, in the larger scheme of things, the visitor struck India with an early blow in its chase in the form of Rohit Sharma. Jack Leach’s jaffa castled the Hitman and jeopardised India’s plans for a smooth start.
India’s bowlers, Ashwin and Ishant Sharma had their moments on the field with record breaking hauls. As Ashwin, notched up a 28th five wicket haul, the paceman picked his 300th Test wicket to enter the record books. Earlier today , Washington Sundar led India’s rearguard resistance with an unbeaten 85 before he ran out of partners. The all- rounder added 80 runs with Ravichandran Ashwin in a spirited seventh wicket stand to take India, who had resumed on 257-6, past the 300-mark.
Jack Leach had bled 94 runs in 17 wicketless overs on Sunday when Rishabh Pant smacked him for five sixes. The left- arm spinner finally tasted success when he dismissed Ashwin for 31 and went on to claim Shahbaz Nadeem (nought) as well. James Anderson had also toiled without success on Sunday but claimed the last two Indian wickets, leaving Sundar stranded 15 runs from a maiden test century.
When England came out for their second innings, Ashwin dismissed Rory Burns with the very first ball and went on to claim 6-61 as England batted on with a safety-first approach. Ishant Sharma dismissed Dan Lawrence to claim his 300th test wicket. He became the third Indian Pacer after Kapil Dev and Zaheer Khan to reach the milestone. Joe Root, who had smashed 218 in the first innings of his 100th test, made 40 before Jasprit Bumrah trapped him LBW. Ashwin then ran through England’s batting order, dismissing Dom Sibley, Ben Sokes and Dom Bess and finally removing Jofra archer and James Anderson in the same over.
