‘Best Test I’ve seen in a long time’: India win series as England fall short in epic

Shubman Gill and Dhruv Jurel kept calm to lead India to a series-clinching five-wicket win over England on day four of the fourth Test on Monday.

Chasing 192 for victory, India slipped to 120-5 but Gill (52) and Jurel (39) put on an unbeaten stand of 72 to achieve the target in the second session in Ranchi.

“This has been the best Test match I’ve seen in a long time,” Fox Cricket commentator Nick Knight said in the final over.

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The win gave India an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series after they lost the first Test.

It was the first series defeat for captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum since they took charge in 2022 and changed England’s fortunes with their attacking philosophy dubbed “Bazball”.

Gill played the anchor in his 124-ball knock as he and Jurel, who made 90 in India’s first innings, staved off a mini-crisis when Shoaib Bashir took two wickets in two balls soon after lunch.

India still needed 72 more but Gill and Jurel rotated the strike coolly to pick off singles before raising his fifty with two successive sixes off Bashir.

Jurel hit the winning runs, punching the air and hugging his partner as the Indian dressing room rose to celebrate.

India started the morning strongly with captain Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal extending their overnight 40-run opening stand to 84.

Root made the breakthrough in his first over of the day, as he induced Jaiswal, on 37, to loop a catch to a diving James Anderson at backward point .

Rohit reached his half-century but fell for 57, stumped by Ben Foakes off Tom Hartley’s left-arm spin.

England’s travelling army of fans then erupted when Bashir, who took his maiden five-wicket haul in the first innings, had Rajat Patidar brilliantly caught by Ollie Pope for a duck to leave India 100-3.

After the interval Bashir silenced the home fans with his twin strikes to give England some hope of an unlikely win.

Ravindra Jadeja slapped a full toss Jonny Bairstow at mid-wicket, Sarfaraz Khan tickled the next ball to Pope backward short-leg for a duck but Jurel survived the hat-trick ball.

England had scored 353 all out in their first innings and led by 46 after India’s 307.

Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav set up the victory after they shared nine second-innings wickets to bundle out England for 145 on day three.

England had recovered from 112-5 in their first innings courtesy of Root’s unbeaten 122.

India were without pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, who was rested, but the bowling stood up — including debutant quick Akash Deep, who took three early wickets after England elected to bat.

Anderson reached 698 Test wickets in the match and needs two more to become only the third bowler to 700 after Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan and late Australia spin wizard Shane Warne (708).

The fifth and final Test begins on March 7 in the Himalayan hill town of Dharamsala.