Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja, while batting for more than two sessions during their unbeaten century innings, managed to get a historic draw by returning India from the verge of defeat on the fifth day here on Sunday in the fourth Test against England.
England are still 2–1 in this close series of five matches, but in the fifth Test starting after three days (31 July), India will now have a chance to equalize the series.
After trailing by 311 runs in the first innings, India lost two wickets without scoring any runs in the second innings, but after that the batsmen showed strong determination and achieved favorable results.
The credit for India’s return to the match goes to Jadeja (107 runs not out of 185 balls unbeaten) and Sundar (101 off 206 balls unbeaten) with a 188 -run partnership for the third wicket between captain Shubman Gill (103 runs in 238 balls) and Lokesh Rahul (90 runs in 230 balls).
Jadeja and Sundar did not give England a chance to return to the match with an unwavering 203 -run partnership for the fifth wicket. Both of them scored a century and also contributed to tired of tired of England bowlers and fielders.
England captain Ben Stokes wanted to finish the match at the beginning of the last hour of the match, but India decided to continue the game due to Sundar and Jadeja being close to a century. Stokes was not happy with India’s decision.
He began bowling with Harry Brook as a sign of disagreement for India’s decision to continue playing. Brook allowed Jadeja and Sundar to score runs easily.
After the completion of Jadeja and Sundar’s centuries, the players of both teams joined hands.
This is his first Test century of Sundar’s career while Jadeja completed his fifth century in this format.
After Rahul and Gill returned to the pavilion in the first session of the day, the batting of Jadeja and Sundar, this, renewed the memories of the match -saving partnership of Ravichandran Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari in the 2021 Sydney Test.
Indian wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant was available for batting in the second innings despite a leg facture, but he did not need to risk further injury.
This is just the second draw Test match in 40 matches for England for England (after coach Brandon McCullum). Earlier, during the 2023 Ashes, the match was drawn in Old Trafford itself, but the main reason for the draw was bad weather at that time.
It is difficult for both teams to keep their fast bowlers fit in a long and tedious series, to see how many first -choice fast bowlers take part in the fifth Test starting in London from July 31.
In the second session of the day, India took 99 runs without losing any wickets. At this time the team’s score was 322 runs for four wickets.
England captain Ben Stokes, who looked dangerous in his eight -over spell in the initial session of the day, could not impress in a three -over spell in the second season.
Sundar completed his half -century by hitting a sixth off balls and fours on the balls of Stokes. Soon after, Jadeja also scored 15 runs in the England captain’s over with the fifth half -century in six innings with fours.
After Pant’s injury, Jadeja and Sundar did not have the stamina in the Indian batting, these two left -handed batsmen batted without taking risks.
The difficulty for England was that left -handed spinner Liam Dawson (95 runs without any success) could not give enough challenge to the left -handed batsmen. Jofra Archer also could not achieve any success after lunch.
Earlier in the morning session, Shubman Gill completed a courageous century. During this, Stokes decided to bowl despite the shoulder pain and broke the 188 -run partnership for the third wicket with Gill by dismissing Rahul.
After Rahul’s dismissal, Gill batted patiently but after completing the century, before lunch, Jofra Archer was caught by a bat on the ball of Archer and caught wicketkeeper Jamie Smith.
India started the day by 174 runs for two wickets. The team at this time needed 137 runs to equal England’s first innings runs. The unbeaten batsmen Gill and Rahul started batting in that style as they did in the last two sessions of the fourth day.
Gill and Rahul took the front when the team lost two wickets without any run. His 421 -ball marathon partnership finally broke when Stokes’s ball collided with Rahul’s pad fast and the umpire called him a fabric without delay.
Soon after, almost the same length ball of Stokes dodged Gill and collided with his fingers and helmets. Gill was followed by a lot of pain and physio treated his finger on the field.
It was notable for Stokes to bowl in this way because he was not fit to bowl on the fourth day due to shoulder injury and muscle stretch. However, like the Lord’s Test, he put a long spell of eight overs despite the pain here on the fifth day and bowled brilliantly regardless of the injury.
England took a new ball after the completion of 80 overs game and Archer gave Gill a great success by showing the pavilion path.
Jadeja got a life on the very first ball of his innings. Archer’s bouncing ball hit Jadeja’s bat and went to the slip area but failed to catch the root difficult catch.
