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With just three more wickets needed to establish a
vital first-innings lead on a deteriorating pitch in Ranchi, England concluded
the second day of the fourth Test with a 134-run lead, thanks to a four-wicket
haul from Shoaib Bashir that forced India into the danger zone.
After making his debut in Visakhapatnam, Bashir, a
20-year-old offspinner, was playing in just his second Test match. He amassed 4
for 84 in a 31-over stretch that started before lunch and concluded after tea.
It broke only to switch ends in the evening’s waning light in order to get one
more over. Among the wickets he claimed was that of opener Yashasvi Jaiswal,
whose half-century stood as India’s sole score above forty. Kuldeep Yadav was
on 17 at the end, and Dhruv Jurel was undefeated on 30.
In India’s first innings, James Anderson caught Rohit
Sharma behind for just two runs in the third over. Jaiswal settled in as one
might expect from a batsman who had hit double hundreds in his previous two
Tests, with the surface initially behaving better than its appearance said it
should before remaining steadily low throughout the day.
Shubman and Jaiswal Gill had lunch and they were
really starting to click. In one Anderson over, Gill raised the partnership to
50 with a couple of fours, and then Jaiswal lifted Bashir over mid-on for six.
When Jaiswal, then forty, edged a wide delivery from Ollie Robinson low to a
diving Ben Foakes, who felt he’d taken the catch, England thought they had
broken their flow, but the third umpire decided it was grounded.
After missing the third Test, Bashir rejoined the England team and quadrupled
his wicket total, his most recent efforts positioning England to tie the series
2-2 with three days to go. Bashir replaced Rehan Ahmed in the starting lineup.
After an 82-run partnership with Jaiswal, he had Gill
leg before wicket. With one that spun sharply to beat the inside edge, India
recovered from 4 for 1 to 86 for 2. Subsequently, he struck Rajat Patidar on
the pad with a blow that would have continued to ping leg but slipped on from
outside off stump.
After eluding England’s LBW review the previous delivery, Ravindra Jadeja hit
back-to-back sixes over the leg side off Tom Hartley. However, he was dismissed
for Bashir’s third wicket, having refused to give up a top-spinner that hooped
into Ollie Pope’s hands at short leg.
However, the most significant wicket came from
Bashir’s fourth one. Following Rohit’s early departure, Jaiswal was the rock.
He scored 73 off 116 balls, including eight fours and a six, moved down the
wicket, and clobbered Bashir over long-on. However, India were clearly in
trouble when he returned to a length ball that stayed low and slammed into
middle stump.
Left-handed The third member of England’s fledgling spin brigade, Tom Hartley,
chipped in with the wickets of R Aswhin, who was leg before wicket off a ball
that stayed low and struck the batter just above the boot, and Sarfaraz Khan,
who went through 53 balls for 14 before he was beautifully taken by a diving
Root at slip.