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India spinners strike but Crawley helps England extend lead past 150 / Photo: © AFP
India spinners strike but Crawley helps England extend lead past 150
Zak Crawley hit a half-century as England extended their lead to 166 at tea, after spinner Shoaib Bashir's five wickets helped bowl out India for 307 on Sunday's day three of the fourth Test.
Wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel's 90 in the morning session restricted England's lead to 46, and then the spinners, led by Ravichandran Ashwin, took five wickets before in Ranchi.
England were 120-5 at the break after losing Crawley on 60 and first-innings centurion Joe Root lbw to Ashwin for 11.
Jonny Bairstow, on 30, and Ben Foakes, who is yet to score, were batting as England try to level the five-match series and send it to a fifth-Test decider in Dharamsala.
Ashwin took the new ball on a pitch with cracks and variable bounce and struck in consecutive balls to remove Ben Duckett, caught at short leg for 15, and Ollie Pope, lbw without scoring, as England were reduced 19-2.
Root, who scored an unbeaten 122 in the first innings, put on 46 with Crawley before Ashwin and India reviewed an lbw appeal, with tracking software indicating the ball just pitched in line and would hit Root's leg stump.
Crawley raised his fifty but was bowled by Kuldeep Yadav who turned one sharply with his left-arm wrist spin.
Yadav then removed Ben Stokes just before tea when the England captain was undone for the second time in the match by a ball that barely bounced ankle high and was bowled off his pad.
In the morning session India had been rescued by Jurel, who put on a 76-run eighth-wicket stand with overnight partner Yadav.
James Anderson broke the stand when Yadav, on 28, played on to give the veteran seamer his 698th Test wicket.
The 41-year-old is now two victims away from becoming just the third bowler to take 700 wickets in Tests, after Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan (800) and the late Australian great Shane Warne (708).
Jurel, who made his debut in the third Test in Rajkot, hit six fours and four sixes in his 149-ball stay and picked up his maiden Test half-century.
Bashir, 20, who missed England's win in the first Test due to a visa issue, trapped debutant Akash Deep lbw for his fifth wicket and kissed the ground in celebration.
F. Burkhard--BTZ
