Chasing 464 for a morale-boosting win, India’s top order collapsed once again to England’s on-song opening attack.
Shikhar Dhawan (1), Cheteshwar Pujara (0) and Virat Kohli (0) fell in quick succession to the rampant opening pair of Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad. Kohli’s dismissal came off the second ball of the fourth over, leaving India in tatters with three wickets down and just two runs on the board.
KL Rahul remained steadfast as the top order collapsed around him, intent on making up for a disastrous tour in which his top scores had been 36 and 37, the latter in the first innings of this fifth Test. Rahul ended the day 46 not out off just 51 balls, including eight fours, having scored 79% of his side’s runs.
Ajinkya Rahane played the defiant anchor role, ending the day 10 not out off 47 balls, as India reached 58-3, still 406 runs behind England and facing the daunting prospect of a 4-1 series defeat if they can’t bat out the final day tomorrow.
Anderson ended the day with figures of 2-23, while Broad took the prized wicket of Kohli to finish with 1-17.
England had added an extra 59 runs after the tea break, before declaring on 423-8 off 112.3 overs. Ben Stokes scored 37 off 36 balls, Sam Curran scored 21 and Adil Rashid ended not out on 20. Jos Buttler was out for a two-ball duck, but he had already secured second spot on the series runs leaderboard with 349 runs, ahead of Alastair Cook on 327, but almost 250 runs behind Kohli on 592 runs.
Hanuma Vihari picked up three cheap wickets in the England second innings to finish with 3-37 to mark an impressive all-round debut. He bowled just one over of his right-arm off-breaks in England’s first innings, and had previously taken just 19 first-class wickets.
Ravindra Jadeja was the hero with the bat in India’s first innings, and he followed his undefeated 86 by bowling superbly through a marathon day of bowling. Jadeja sent down 47 overs in England’s second innings, picking up 3-179 to add to his first innings 4-79.
Photo: Philip Brown/Getty Images
