India handed 192 run target to win fourth England Test, clinch series

India shaved off 40 runs from their 192 run target in the fourth Test against England in Ranchi on Sunday. Rohit Sharma (24*) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (16*) saw off the last half hour of play without any trouble.

England were bundled out for 145 on the third day’s play as the Indian spinners ran riot on a pitch that started to assist slower bowlers as the match went on.

A win in Ranchi for India would give them an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series. England had won the opener, in Hyderabad, before India sealed the next two in a row in Visakhapatnam and Rajkot.

Since suffering a stunning defeat to England in 2012, India have been unbeaten at home - winning 16 consecutive home Test series. That number would tick to 17 should India scale the remaining 152 runs.

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The India trio of Kuldeep Yadav, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja took all 10 wickets as the visitors collapsed about half hour before close of play. Ashwin took five wickets, Kuldeep four and Jadeja captured one.

Five England batters reached double digits with Zak Crawley (60), Ben Duckett (15), Joe Root (11), Jonny Bairstow (30) and Ben Foakes (17) getting that milestone.

England had got off to a shaky start losing Ben Duckett (15) and Ollie Pope (0) to leave them at 19/2 but Zak Crawley then played a crucial part with 40-plus partnerships with Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow. Crawley got to his third fifty of the series inside 71 balls but fell to Kuldeep Yadav whose turning delivery cleaned up the England opener in the 29th over. Once Crawley was dismissed, England were 110/4, and the visitors never really had a say with the bat ever since.

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Earlier, India were bowled out for 307 in their first innings as Dhruv Jurel made a determined 90 for his maiden Test fifty.

Jurel’s resilient knock helped India produce an incredible fightback to limit England’s first-innings lead to just 46 runs.

Following up his dogged 46 in Rajkot, Jurel produced a career-best 90, showing that he can soak in pressure with ease as India’s long search for a wicketkeeper-batter seemed to be heading in the right direction.

After getting to his fifty from 96 balls, the Rajasthan Royals wicketkeeper-batter quickly changed gears, taking the English spin duo of Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley to cleaners.

Jurel hurried for a single off Hartley to bring up his maiden fifty in Test cricket, in an innings of supreme composure.

Later Akash Deep put on an entertaining 40-run stand off just 75 balls for the ninth wicket with Jurel.

Dropped on 59 by Ollie Robinson, Jurel smacked Bashir for back-to-back four and six and raced to 90 from 149 balls before left-arm spinner Hartley denied him a well-deserved century by cleaning him up with a quicker delivery.

Young England offspinner Shoaib Bashir too completed his maiden Test five-wicket haul by trapping Akash Deep to return with the figures of 5 for 119 in his second Test.

Jurel found an able ally in Kuldeep Yadav who made 28 off 131 balls, in an innings of utmost grit and determination as the duo put together 76 valuable runs in the eighth wicket stand that brought the deficit under 100.

(with inputs from PTI)