India vs England | Rahul, Gill stonewall England on Day 4

Manchester: Captain Shubman Gill and K L Rahul showed the stomach for a fight with resilient knocks but India were still left with the Herculean task of saving the fourth Test after their English counterparts piled on an avalanche of runs, with skipper Ben Stokes scoring an emotional century that put the celebrated all-rounder in elite company here on another record-filled Saturday.

India were already staring down the barrel following three days of extreme domination by England, and things just went from bad to worse for the visitors as superstar Stokes, who can do nothing wrong this Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, hit a belligerent 141 off 198 balls to help the hosts post the highest total at the iconic Old Trafford — a mammoth 669 all out in 157.1 overs.

Trailing by a whopping 311 runs with a little over five sessions left, India needed nothing less than a miraculous effort to save the game, and their hopes took a massive beating when Chris Woakes removed opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and one-drop Sai Sudharsan off successive deliveries in the opening over itself with no scores on the board. 

At that stage, it looked like beleaguered Indians would crash to an almighty defeat on the fourth day itself against a pumped-up England, but Rahul (87 not out) and skipper Gill (78 not out) batted with maturity and grit, forging a unbroken 174-run partnership to take the visitors to 174/2. Still trailing by 137 runs, India’s hopes of pulling off an improbable draw will depend on how long the duo can bat on the final day. 

The day began with Stokes meaning business from the word go. He stepped down the track in the second over of the day to spank Mohammed Siraj for four to get his juices flowing. If that shot had aggression written all over it, the next boundary off Siraj had class embossed on it as he drove elegantly, like most left-handers, through the covers for a four. 

Stokes, who was struggling to time the ball on Friday and was beset by cramps, looked in his zone. And when he’s in his elements, there’s very little anyone can do to quell the current superhuman of world cricket. The Indians, already nursing wounds from the torture Joe Root subjected them to the previous day, just gave up, hoping Stokes shows some mercy. Sadly, it never happened as Stokes opened his broad shoulders to brutalise them. 

The intensity picked up after he reached his 14th Test century, which came after three years. He just kept looking for the big shots and the Indian bowlers just couldn’t find a way to stop the carnage. Lead pacer Jasprit Bumrah, Siraj, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar all went for runs, England running along like a freight train and crashing everything in its path. The destruction ended a little before lunch when Jadeja had No. 10 Brydon Carse (47) caught in the deep.

Enduring a hellish baptism, Gill was not even afforded the luxury of calming his tired mind and body as he was summoned to bat in the sixth ball of the opening over when Jasiwal and Sudharsan departed for ducks. The 25-year-old was instantly put through the wringer by the England pacers who targeted his weakness — the incoming ball. They kept bowling to his pads and body and there were close leg-before appeals too. The bowling was venomous and the crowd hostile. It was a stern test of his examination and character.

Gill, who was in Bradmanesque form in the opening two Tests, however, survived it. He defended patiently during the early part of his innings and then, as the confidence started to kick after the early tension, he started to play his shots to get the scoreboard moving along with Rahul who looked in regal touch. Both now hold the key between draw and defeat.