India 118-3 at lunch chasing 192 to win England series / Photo: TAUSEEF MUSTAFA - AFP
India 118-3 at lunch chasing 192 to win England series
England's spinners hit back with three wickets on Monday, including skipper Rohit Sharma, as India reached 118-3 at lunch in their chase of 192 to clinch the fourth Test and the series.
India lost Yashasvi Jaiswal for 37, Rohit (55) and Rajat Patidar (0) as Joe Root, Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir took one wicket each in the first session on the fourth day in Ranchi.
Shubman Gill, on 18, and Ravindra Jadeja, on three, were batting at the break with India needing another 74 for a third straight victory and an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-Test series.
England need seven wickets to take it to a winner-takes-all decider in Dharamsala next week.
Rohit and the left-handed Jaiswal, who resumed at 40-0, began aggressively on a pitch peppered with cracks and offering variable bounce.
Rohit looked fluent and hit a dismissive six over long-on from James Anderson, who had reached 698 wickets in India's first innings.
Root made the breakthrough in his first over of the day as he induced Jaiswal, who leads the series batting with 655 runs, to loop a catch to a diving Anderson at backward point to end an 84-run opening stand.
Rohit passed fifty but soon fell, stumped by Ben Foakes off Hartley's left-arm spin.
England's travelling army of fans then erupted when Bashir, who took his maiden five-wicket haul in the first innings, had Rajat Patidar brilliantly caught by Ollie Pope for a duck to leave India 100-3.
England scored 353 all out in their first innings and led by 46 after India's 307.
But spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav took nine wickets on Sunday as England collapsed from 47-0 to 145 all out on Sunday in their second innings.
L.Ross--EWJ
Featured