England produce their best day of the summer to pull ahead in fourth Test against India as they push for series victory

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

The sun came out in Manchester on Thursday - and it began to shine on England's chances of pulling clear in this relentless tussle of a series.
India have pushed them all the way this summer, and may yet do so again over the next three days. But as Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett responded to the tourists' 358 with a punitive opening stand of 166 at more than five an over, it was hard to avoid the sense that something had finally shifted, that a crack had opened at last.
England are desperate to avoid heading to The Oval next week all square at 2-2, and girded their loins to produce their best all-round day of the series. Inspired first by Ben Stokes 's latest heroics with the ball, they were later boosted by an opening pair who exploited some dreadful Indian bowling.
In the final session alone, England scored 148, and if a little gloss was removed by the demise of Crawley, caught at slip by KL Rahul off Ravindra Jadeja for 84, and of Duckett, edging a cut off the debutant Anshul Kamboj for an even more agonising 94, then they will tell themselves that another day's batting should put this game beyond their opponents. On a pitch that remains true, it ought not to be beyond them.
The conditions, for sure, favoured England. The ball did all sorts in the morning under grey skies, when the average swing of 1.6 degrees was higher than it has been at any point during the summer. Then, soon after Crawley and Duckett began the reply, the clouds began to part, as if the ECB were now controlling the weather.
And yet that could only partially explain why England outplayed India, who began by serving up an array of freebies on Duckett's pads - 'rubbish', their former coach Ravi Shastri called it up in the commentary box, speaking on behalf of a nation.
It didn't help that Shubman Gill handed the new ball to the nervy Kamboj ahead of Mohammed Siraj, India's leading wicket-taker in the series. Sensing his chance, Duckett took 12 off Kamboj's first over, and helped himself to the first 26 runs of the innings.
Crawley, meanwhile, embarked on his best Test knock since destroying Australia here two years ago, a vindication - the management will argue - of his continued selection ahead of the return Ashes this winter.
'I always want more from myself, and I certainly have for the last year or so,' he said. 'I owe it to myself to have a few good more performances. It makes days like today worth it.'
For his part, Duckett rediscovered the touch that had yielded his fourth-innings masterpiece in the series opener at Headingley, only to scratch an old wound by falling short with three figures his for the taking.
Another wicket or two before stumps might have redressed the ledger, but Ollie Pope survived some jumpy moments, and with Joe Root ushered England to 225 for two, a deficit of 133.
With Bumrah enduring a rare off day, India looked mainly toothless. Shardul Thakur went at seven an over, Siraj at nearly six, and Kamboj at just under five. Even Jadeja's normally precise left-arm darts were milked at 4.62. It was no recipe for any kind of control. There were just five maidens out of 46, and four came from Bumrah.
The first half of the day had belonged to England, too, as Stokes continued to harry India in what has turned into the bowling summer of his life.
The initial breakthrough was supplied in the second over by Jofra Archer, whose expertise against left-handers earned him the wicket of Jadeja, well caught by Harry Brook low to his right at second slip to end a sequence of four half-centuries.
TOP SPIN AT THE TEST
Ben Stokes became only the fourth player in Test history to achieve the double of 10 hundreds and five five-fors, after Garry Sobers, Ian Botham and Jacques Kallis.
He now has 229 Test wickets, drawing level with England fast bowler Darren Gough, having surpassed the 15 Stokes picked up in his first Test series, in the 2013-14 Ashes.
Ben Duckett has now fallen between 71 and 98 on 10 occasions – and remains marooned on six Test hundreds.
Thakur and Washington Sundar steadied India's ship, but now Stokes imposed himself on the game, as he had on Wednesday with the wickets of Gill and Sai Sudharsan. His nominal role as England's 'fourth seamer' increasingly feels like a breach of the Trade Descriptions Act.
Thakur, on 41, edged him into the gully, where he was superbly caught by a flying Duckett, before Stokes persuaded Sundar to top-edge to fine leg - just as he had Sudharsan. When Kamboj was caught behind three balls later for a duck, Stokes had his first Test five-for since 2017, and more wickets (16) than in any series in his career. If he has ever bowled better, no one could immediately pinpoint when.
Meanwhile, Rishabh Pant - perhaps the only player on either side to outrank Stokes in the box office - had hobbled back to the middle to resume his innings on 37, making light of a suspected broken foot and roared on by another vocal Indian contingent.
The question of whether this was an act of bravery or bravado disappeared as he pulled Archer for six, then - feet in cement - timed Stokes through the covers to bring up his fifth score of 50-plus in the series.
Archer ended his fun moments later, reproducing the gem that had knocked back his off stump at Lord's, and might have been too good for Pant this time even if he had been mobile. And when Root persuaded Stokes to review a faint glove down the leg side from Bumrah off Archer, India had lost their last five for 44.
They are not out of this game, but all this has made their life much harder.