India 219 for 7 (Jaiswal 73, Bashir 4-84) trail England 353 (Root 122*, Robinson 58, Jadeja 4-67) by 134 runs
James Anderson had Rohit Sharma caught behind for just 2 in the third over of India’s first innings. With the pitch behaving better than its appearance suggested it might early on, before keeping increasingly low as the day wore on, Jaiswal settled in as expected of a player who had scored double-centuries in his previous two Tests.
Jaiswal and Shubman Gill started to find their groove after lunch. Gill brought up the 50 partnership with a couple of fours in one Anderson over before Jaiswal lifted Bashir over mid-on for six. England thought they’d broken their flow when Jaiswal, on 40, edged a wide delivery from Ollie Robinson low towards a diving Ben Foakes, who thought he’d taken the catch, but the third umpire ruled that it was grounded.
Bashir returned to the England side after missing the third Test, replacing Rehan Ahmed, and doubled his wicket tally, his latest efforts putting England in position to level the series 2-2 with three days remaining.
He had Gill lbw after an 82-run stand with Jaiswal, which allowed India to recover from 4 for 1 to 86 for 2, with one that turned sharply to beat the inside edge. He then rapped Rajat Patidar on the pad with one that skidded on from outside off stump and would have gone on to ping leg.
Ravindra Jadeja crashed back-to-back sixes over the leg side off Tom Hartley after surviving England’s lbw review the previous ball, but he was Bashir’s third wicket, defending a top-spinner from a good length which hooped into Ollie Pope’s hands at short leg.
But it was Bashir’s fourth wicket that was the most crucial. Jaiswal was the steadying influence after Rohit’s early exit, reaching 73 off 116 balls with eight fours and a six, moving down the wicket and thrashing Bashir over long-on. But when he moved back to a length ball that stayed low and crashed into middle stump, India were well and truly in trouble.
