By BD Narayankar
Ranchi, Feb 25 (UNI) Dhruv Jurel and the spin trio brought India to the brink of a series win against England on Day 3 of the fourth Test here on Sunday.
At stumps, India were 40/0, needing 152 runs to win the Test with Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal batting on 24 and 16, respectively.
Jurel showcased his dogged determination by building a crucial 76 runs partnership for the eighth wicket along with Kuldeep Yadav who frustrated the English bowlers and reduced the deficit before James Anderson broke through.
Once Kuldeep was cleaned up, Jurel adopted the top gear to get runs quickly even as debutant Akash Deep gave adequate support at the other end.
Jurel raced to 90 before missing a well-deserved maiden Test century. His heroics with the support of lower-order batsmen resulted in keeping England’s first-innings lead to 46 runs.
Ravichandran Ashwin impaired England further by dismissing Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope off back-to-back deliveries to put India ahead.
Zak Crawley got his runs in Bazball way at the one end, but Ashwin brought curtains on first-innings centurion Joe Root’s innings.
Kuldeep then took over and castled Crawley and Ben Stokes close to Tea break.
England desperately needed a fightback from the lower order as they did in the first innings but failed.
Kuldeep and Jadeja ran through before Ashwin completed his fifer to bundle out England for 145.
To shatter England’s hopes further, Rohit and Jaiswal gave a leg up to the ticklish target of 192 by getting crucial runs.
Of the two, Rohit was aggressive and smacked four boundaries. The duo need to keep their cool and get runs to clinch the five-match Test series 3-1.
Brief scores:
India 307 (Dhruv Jurel 90; Shoaib Bashir 5/119) & 40/0 (Rohit Sharma 24 not out) need another 152 runs vs England353 & 145 (Zak Crawley 60; R Ashwin 5/51).
