Now all it needs is for England to win this game and the next one and walk away with a drawn series.
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Moeen Ali dismissed opener K.L. Rahul (24) who’s making a comeback after an injury. I thought we could have restricted them to 375. The senior man was happy to offer the Nottinghamshire fast bowler the strike, and Ball was happy to find the fence, sending Jadeja to the point boundary then the fine leg one in the same over.
But Ashwin, the world’s top-ranked Test bowler, picked up four wickets to peg back England who had been eyeing a large first innings total on a track already assisting the spinners.
Earlier, England’s first innings folded for 400 after the lower added some valuable runs. The champion spinner did have a big say in the second and third sessions of an absorbing day’s play.
Jos Buttler scored his sixth test half-century and put on 51 runs with Jake Ball (31).
A pitch that had appeared to be doing very little during Jennings and Ali’s stand suddenly became a minefield with Ashwin and Jadeja (1-60) swarming all over Bairstow and Stokes. It will be more daunting than opening the batting at Chester-le-Street, but he sounds up for it: “I don’t think of it as pressure”. It was vital for me to get the best out of myself.
“I think the reason why people mention my age is of course I am quite young – 19, so I think most, if not all, the credit should go to my family for the qualities that they have instilled in me from a young age”.
“First and foremost, I am extremely grateful for his time”.
However, having survived those early jitters, the pair began to look more comfortable and upped the run rate; Jennings driving and sweeping superbly to put pressure on the Indian spinners. Ashwin has now equalled legendary Kapil Dev’s tally of 23 five-wicket hauls in Test cricket to be behind just Anil Kumble (35) and Harbhajan Singh (25). Those were not sitters, as Ashwin reminded, but will be marked as misses at this level.
India (likely): M Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (capt), Karun Nair, R Ashwin, Parthiv Patel (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Jayant Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav. The Indian off-spinner claimed four wickets on the first day of the fourth Test at the Wankhede Stadium. “He’s going to open the batting and another great opportunity for a guy to come in and play”, Cook told reporters, adding he was reminded of his own debut in 2006 when he flew into India 48 hours ahead of the game and hit a century in Nagpur. “He is someone we believe is just round the corner to get a big score”, Kumble was firmly behind the seasoned opener.
Reports on cricinfo.com suggested he was not seriously hurt, despite being sent to hospital and advised to rest.
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Following a 10-minute delay in the afternoon session, Reiffel was replaced by third umpire Marais Erasmus – with reserve official Chettithody Shamshuddin taking over the South African’s duties.
