England spinner Shoaib Bashir took four wickets on Saturday to restrict India to 219/7 at stumps on Day 2 of the fourth Test at Ranchi.
Dhruv Jurel and Kuldeep Yadav were unbeaten for India at stumps having put up 42 runs off 106 balls. England lead India by 134 runs after Joe Root’s unbeaten 122 took the visitors to 353 before lunch.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, fresh after scoring a double century in the last Test, led the Indian charge with Shubman Gill after India captain Rohit Sharma was dismissed by James Anderson.
Jaiswal and Gill put up 82 runs on a difficult pitch before Bashir ran through the Indian batting order in a marathon 31-over spell. He first got rid of Gill for 38 before trapping Rajat Patidar in front of wicket.
Ravindra Jadeja hit Tom Hartley for two sixes before perishing to Bashir. He capped off his spell by getting rid of Jaiswal for 73. The Indian opener went on the back foot on a length ball only for it to stay low and take the toe end of his bat before crashing on to the stumps.
Hartley joined the party getting rid of a watchful Sarfaraz Khan and Ravichandran Ashwin to reduce India to 177/7/. Jurel and Yadav patiently played out the rest of the session.
Earlier in the day, Root and England’s tail added 51 crucial runs to take the visitors past the 300-run mark. Ollie Robinson scored his first Test fifty before Jurel took a sharp catch behind the wickets off Jadeja to dismiss the Englishman.