Debutant Jennings’ Century Takes England to 288/5 on Day One
England end day one of the fourth Test against India at 288/5.
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Keaton Jennings impressed on his debut for England with a century but off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin brought India back with a late three-wicket burst on the opening day of the fourth Test at Mumbai on Thursday.
England were cruising at 196/2 when they took tea but thereafter India reduced the visitors to 288 for five at stumps as Ashwin removed Moeen Ali (50) and Jennings (112) in the space of three balls and later got rid of Jonny Bairstow (14).
Ben Stokes (25) and Jos Buttler (18) were the unbeaten batsmen at close after an unfinished stand of 39 on a track that would be difficult to negotiate with passage of time.
Post-tea, Ashwin made the ball talk by extracting turn and bounce from the Wankhede Stadium track and ended with figures of four for 75.
The off-spinner moved past Javagal Srinath in the list of Indian wicket takers during the first day’s play. He now has 239 wickets to his name, three more than Srinath.
The Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja (1/60) picked up England skipper Alastair Cook’s (46) wicket in the opening session.
And the other Indian bowlers – medium pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav and third spinner Jayant Yadav ended the day wicket-less after bowling 43 overs in total.
The tourists are 0-2 down in the series and need to win this game to keep it alive for the fifth and final Test, scheduled in Chennai from 16 December.
Jennings, born in Johannesburg, showed no nerves as he became the 19th batsman from England to make a century on debut against India. It was also the fifth time that a batsman achieved the feat against the hosts since 2010.
Jennings, who had come in as replacement for the injured teenaged batsman Haseeb Hameed after the third game, took full advantage of two close shaves early on, including a dropped catch when he had not even opened his account.
He added 99 runs for the first wicket with captain Cook, 37 for the second with Root and 94 for the third with Ali.
Joe Root was sent back by Ashwin through a smart catch at slip by the home team captain Virat Kohli after Cook had been stumped by Parthiv Patel off Jadeja.
The tourists looked well-poised for a big score at the end of session two when Ashwin, who bowled far better after switching ends, clipped the high-flying England's wings by packing off Ali.
Ali top-edged a sweep and was caught at mid-wicket soon after completing his half-century in 104 balls. Two balls later, Jennings, son of renowned coach Ray, was caught brilliantly by a diving Cheteshwar Pujara at gully.
Jennings had played some audacious reverse sweeps too, including when on the cusp of his landmark, to reach the hundred in 186 balls and laced with 12 fours.
More trouble followed for England when Bairstow, stonewalling with Stokes, was tempted into playing a sweep and top-edged to long leg off Ashwin’s bowling as the visitors slumped to 249 for five.
It left the sixth wicket pair of Stokes and Buttler to do the resurrection job till close of play.
(With inputs from PTI)