Young Indian cricket stars Shubman Gill and Dhruv Jurel showed their class on a deteriorating wicket in Ranchi on Monday to guide the team to a 5-wicket win over England in the fourth Test. With this result, India have taken an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the five-Test series.
India made a strong start to Day 4 as they resumed the final innings 40 for no loss with Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal continuing from where they left on Sunday.
Captain Rohit Sharma led from the front with his highest fourth innings score of 55 in Test cricket.
Rohit scored his 17th fifty, probably one of the most important ones of his career, while Jaiswal made 37 but things changed dramatically after the breakthrough was made with India's score on 84 by Joe Root.
The floodgates opened and England kept chipping in the wickets at regular intervals by making life really difficult for the Indian batters with spinners Shoaib Bashir, Root and Tom Hartley dominating proceedings in the second half of the first session.
Gill shows maturity, Jurel displays grit
Shubman Gill held up on end but kept losing partners from the other as England struck twice through Bashir right after lunch with the wickets of Ravindra Jadeja (4) and Sarfaraz Khan (0) off successive deliveries.
India collapsed from 84 for no loss to 120 for 5, needing another 72 runs to win the match. That's when Gill and Jurel joined forces to bail their team out of troubled waters.
The match-winning partnership
Initially, the pair approached the bowlers with caution, gradually shifting gears to tactfully pierce through the field and steadily erode the target in the subsequent session.
Despite England captain Ben Stokes' relentless efforts to dismantle their stand, Gill and Jurel skillfully weathered every challenge, guiding India to victory in the 61st over.
Gill remained undefeated with a composed 52, while Jurel contributed a solid 39 not out, forging a crucial 72-run partnership off 134 deliveries.
Their composed and strategic batting under duress, leading India to triumph, was particularly commendable and showcased their maturity and temperament.
Shoaib Bashir was once again impressive with the ball, bagging 3 wickets for 79 runs while Root and Hartley got one each but they couldn't completely derailed the Indian chase despite giving it their best on a surface which kept low and took a lot of turn as the match progressed.
India extended their home win record to 17 consecutive Test series, a streak which started in 2013. This is also the first time England has lost a Test series and back-to-back matches in the format in the Bazball era under coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes.
