India versus England 4th Test 4th Day: Match heading towards an exciting finish

 The batsmen dominated the fourth day of the 4^th Test to lead towards an exciting finish played at Kennington Oval, London on Sunday.

Starting on the overnight score of 270 for 3, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja started off steadily with some lovely strokes against Anderson and Robinson making life tough negotiating the first hour. Chris Woakes struck immediately on his first ball of the spell dismissing Jadeja. Jadeja decided to review the decision and was upheld to out. Jadeja and Kohli added 59 runs for the 4^th wicket.

Ajiyanka Rahane was given out by the umpire and on review, it was overturned to not out as it was missing stumps. Soon after, Woakes struck to dismiss Rahane bringing England into the game. Virat Kohli looked solid as ever for a big score but was eventually gobbled by Overton at slips off Moeen Ali leaving India in some trouble.

Rishabh Pant looked cautious with his technique leaving the ball playing to the merit. Shardul Thakur continued from where he left hitting some lovely boundaries. India went into lunch break at 329 for 6.

After the lunch break, Shardul Thakur and Pant put the tired England bowlers under immense pressure keeping scoreboard ticking with brilliant shots. Thakur reached fifty off 65 balls while Pant played a good knock reaching a half-century off 105 balls. England captain Joe Root rolled his arm over and got rid of Thakur for a well-made 60 ending 100 runs partnership for the 7^th wicket.

Soon after, Moeen Ali took a simple caught and bowled chance to dismiss well-set Pant. Umesh Yadav joined in with Jasprit Bumrah enjoying themselves against the tired England bowling line-up. It was a superb batting effort by the Indian batsmen to end the 2^nd session at 455 for 8.

The third session saw Woakes getting rid of Bumrah providing an easy catch to Ali at mid-on. Bumrah and Yadav added 36 runs for the 9^th wicket. Umesh Yadav’s quickfire innings ended helping India post 466 runs setting England 368 runs to win.

In reply, Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed started off cautiously against Bumrah and Umesh Yadav. Ravindra Jadeja was bought into the attack giving away runs with free runs. After the initial struggle, Jadeja troubled Burns with rough marks. Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma did not come to the field due to respective problems.

Hameed and Burns looked comfortable hitting boundaries keeping the scoreboard ticking. Siraj bowled decently but gave away some runs with wayward bowling. The England openers survived anxious moments ending the 4^th day at 77 for 0.

India 191 in 61.3 overs (Shardul Thakur 57, Kohli 50, Woakes 4/55, Robinson 3/38) and 466 in 148.2 overs (Rohit Sharma 127, Shardul Thakur 60, Pant 50, Pujara 61, Woakes 3/83, Moeen Ali 2/118, Robinson 2/105) England 290 in 84 overs ( Pope 81, Woakes 50, Malan 26*, Root 21, Bumrah 2/67, Yadav 3/76, Jadeja 2/36) and 77 for 0 in 32 overs ( Hameed 43*, Burns 31*)

England need 291 runs to win.

 

England needs 291 runs to win on the final day