• England edge closer to victory in Chennai

    A total of 15 wickets fell on Monday as England moved within nine wickets of victory over India in the first Test in Chennai.

    The hosts started day four on 257-6 with Ravi Ashwin and Washington Sundar at the crease.

    Jack Leach and James Anderson didn’t hang around with cleaning up the tail, however, as India were dismissed for 337 despite a valiant 85 from Sundar, who finished unbeaten.

    READ: India in strife as England excel

    It gave the visitors a massive first-innings lead but Joe Root opted against enforcing the follow-on as England went out to bat again.

    India weren’t going to go down easily and fought their way back into the the game with Ashwin utilising the spin from the pitch to devastating effect.

    He bagged excellent figures of 6-61 as India cheaply dismissed England for 178 in the final session of the day.

    Root again was the pick of the English batsmen and the only one to really look comfortable against the spin.

    He reached 40 before Jasprit Bumrah trapped him in front. Chasing a target of 420 for victory with little more than a day remaining in the clash, Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill had to survive a couple of overs before stumps.

    Sharma struck two massive blows against the bowling of Jofra Archer but was clean bowled by Leach the very next over for 12.

    Gill (15) and Cheteshwar Pujara (12) saw out the remaining overs, India ending the day on 39-1, still needing 381 more runs for victory.

    Full scorecard

    Post by

    Andre Huisamen