England threatened to pull off a famous victory only for India to seal the series with a five-wicket win on yesterday’s fourth day of the 4th Test in Ranchi, India.
Off-spinner, Shoaib Bashir took 2 wickets in two balls just after lunch to leave India five wickets down and 72 runs short of their target of 192.
But Shubman Gill made a chanceless unbeaten 52, sharing an unbroken 6th wicket stand of 72 with Dhruv Jurel, who ended 39 not out.
India had earlier been cruising after openers, Rohit Shama and Yashasvi Jaiswal gave them an excellent start of 84, but they lost three wickets for 16 runs. Jaiswal skewed off-spinner, Joe Root to James Anderson to be out for 37, Rohit Sharma edged Tom Hartley to the wicketkeeper for 55, and Rajat Patidar was out to Bashir without scoring.
Scoring stopped, tension rose and England’s belief grew. When Bashir pulled off his double strike, the prospect of an England win began to feel like a reality.
Instead India take an unassailable 3-1 lead and stretch a proud unbeaten home record that dates back to 2012, while England suffer their first series defeat under Ben Stokes’ captaincy.
The final scores: England 353 and 145, India 307 and 192-5.
There is a break of more than a week before the 5th and final Test begins on 7th March.
