MUMBAI : Ravindra Jadeja compounded England’s woes with a twin strike to leave the visitors struggling at 49 for three in their second innings, trailing India by 182 runs at tea on day four of the fourth Test here today.
England face a herculean task of the saving the game with their top-order crumbling in the 13.2 overs bowled before tea. The break was taken when Moeem Ali was dismissed by Jadeja with Joe Root unbeaten on 30 at the other end.
In response to England’s 400 in the first innings, India were all out for 631 in the afternoon session with captain Virat Kohli scoring 235 off 340 balls, his third double hundred of the year.
The home team made England chase leather for more than 12 hours when replying to the visitors’ first innings score of 400 before being dismissed for the third-highest score against the same opponents, 48 minutes after lunch, on day four at the Wankhede Stadium here.
England, pushed to the wall, were struggling to save the game and were tottering at tea with captain Alastair Cook (18), debutant fellow-opener Keaton Jennings (0) and Ali (0) being the batsmen dismissed. Cook’s wicket was Jadeja’s 100 scalp in Tests.
Root was at the crease after the visitors lost Moeen in the second ball of the last over before the break to Ravindra Jadeja, caught in the leg trap, after the left arm spinner had trapped Cook leg before.
Bhuveneshwar Kumar trapped Jennings leg before to start the procession.
Earlier Kohli, who batted for more than eight and a half hours from yesterday morning, struck one six and 25 fours in a monumental 340-ball essay to make the highest score by an Indian skipper and also his third double ton this year, in a five-month period, as well as career.
With Yadav, who became the first Indian batsman to hit a century at number nine by making a fine 204-ball 104 in 244 minutes with 15 hits to the fence, Kohli – who has been in imperious form in the series, also created a new national eighth wicket record partnership of 241 that came at near run a minute.
Their partnership of 241, that consumed 244 minutes and 352 balls, obliterated India’s previous best for the wicket of 161 set by Mohammed Azhauddin and Anil Kumble, the current head coach, in 1996-97 against South Africa at Kolkata.
This also eclipsed the previous highest eighth-wicket partnership of 168 between the two countries standing in the name of England’s Ray Illingworth and P Lever at Old Trafford, Manchester in 1971. (AGENCIES)
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