India’s injured Rishabh Pant hits 54 after surprise return before England takes control of fourth test
England might have thought it had seen the last of Rishabh Pant in this Test series against India.
Pant had other ideas.
After retiring early on Day One of the fourth Test at Old Trafford with a foot injury, Pant returned Thursday, albeit with a limp, and posted a half-century as India reached 358 all out, with England captain Ben Stokes taking 5-72.
While Pant’s involvement came as a surprise and prolonged the visitors’ first innings, England went on to take control of the match with a blistering opening partnership of 166 by Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett.
The hosts reached 225-2 at stumps on Day Two at Old Trafford to trail by 133 runs, largely thanks to the explosive batting of Crawley (84) and Duckett (94), which included 26 fours between the pair – 13 each – and a six for Crawley.
Ollie Pope (20 not out) and Joe Root (11 not out) are at the crease.
England leads the five-match series 2-1.
India resumed on 264-4 and England took the wickets of Ravindra Jadeja (20) and Shardul Thakur (41) in the morning session.
But Pant’s return presented an unexpected obstacle for England when he came out to replace Thakur after overnight reports that he had sustained a fracture.
Walking slowly and uncomfortably, he made his way to the crease to cheers from all around the stadium and resumed his innings on 37.
It was a gutsy display from Pant, who was hurt a day earlier when his showmanship got the better of him, and an attempted reverse sweep off Chris Woakes saw the ball deflect onto his right foot. He lay on the field in pain and had to leave on a cart, with his foot badly swollen.
He went on to add 17 more runs to get to 54 before being bowled by Jofra Archer, who sent the stumps crashing.
England wasted no time in chasing down India’s total with Crawley and Duckett on a mission.
The hosts were 77-0 at tea in reply, with Duckett hitting 43 off 41 balls with seven fours, while Crawley was 33 off 44.
The pair kept on finding the boundary when play resumed, and both were looking on course for centuries until India’s breakthrough.
Crawley was caught by KL Rahul at slip off Jadeja and Duckett was caught by substitute Dhruv Jurel off Anshul Kamboj. Duckett’s head dropped as the realisation sunk in that he’d fallen just six short of a test century.
The England captain is now the leading wicket-taker for the series after his haul of five in the fourth test.
Stokes added the wickets of Thakur (41), Washington Sundar (27) and Kamboj (0) to those of Shubman Gill (12) and Sai Sudharsan (61) on Day One.
Stokes has 16 wickets for the series, and this was the first time he had taken five in a match for eight years.
