Gill, India keep series alive with drawn fourth test against England

Al Jazeera

a day ago

India, led by captain Shubman Gill, batted with great character to secure a hard-fought draw in the fourth test against England and keep the series alive going into the final game.
After losing two wickets before they had scored a run in their second innings, India batted for over five sessions for the loss of two more wickets to end the match on 425-4 at Old Trafford in Manchester on Sunday.
A courageous hundred from Gill – his fourth of the series – and dogged unbeaten centuries from Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar – gave the home crowd little to cheer on a tough day five for England.
A closely fought series remains at 2-1 to England, and the hosts must avoid defeat in the final test at The Oval in London, starting on Thursday, to win it.
'This is no less than a win for us, given we were around 300 runs off the lead. Our batsman put on a great display,' Gill told the BBC.
'As soon as England got the new ball, it was doing a little bit, but our batters did really well, and it was tremendous, with a little bit of luck going our way as some balls can get dragged on, brilliant batting and brave batting.'
England captain Ben Stokes, who took five wickets in India's first innings but was not fit to bowl much on Saturday, brought himself into the attack on Sunday morning with India resuming on 174-2.
The hosts were firm favourites to seal victory at this point, even more so when Stokes's reintroduction paid dividends. The 34-year-old trapped KL Rahul by lbw for 90, ending his excellent third-wicket partnership with Gill at 188.
Gill remained undeterred, however, even after getting a nasty blow on the hand. In his first series as captain, the 25-year-old became only the third skipper to score four hundreds in a single test series.
Gill Falls
After almost seven hours at the crease, a tired-looking Gill wafted at a Jofra Archer delivery to fall just before lunch for 103. Jadeja was dropped on the next ball by Joe Root, a tough chance at first slip.
England still had plenty of time to secure victory, but the home side barely created any chances, with India seeing out the draw in relative comfort.
Washington moved along conservatively after lunch, but hit successive boundaries, one a huge six, to move to his fifth test half-century. Jadeja reached his fifty and passed 1,000 test runs against England, becoming the third Indian player to do so this series.
After tea, with their chance of victory gone, England offered India the opportunity to call a halt to proceedings early, but Gill kept his team out there.
With England rotating their bowlers, Jadeja swept to his fifth test ton under no pressure, before Washington quickly completed his maiden test hundred.
India did then agree to a draw – the first non-rain affected draw for England since coach Brendon McCullum and Stokes came together in 2022.
'Another hard-fought test,' Stokes told reporters. 'Another five-dayer. We set the game up really well, the way we put the Indian bowlers under pressure, focusing on batting once.
'We gave ourselves a great chance of bowling them out. We played the game how we wanted to; it didn't just pan out the way we wanted,' Stokes added.
'Mentally, I feel fine; physically, I've been better. It has been a pretty big workload this series.'