Team India registered a dominating 5-wicket victory over England in the fourth Test in Ranchi, on Monday, to take an invincible 3-1 lead in the five match series against England.
After losing successive wickets, Dhruv Jurel and Shubman Gill built a stable partnership responsibly to strengthen India's position in the contest and subsequently led them to victory.
England started off very well in the first inning, both on the bowling and batting front but faltered at the later stage of the game, thus letting the match as well as the series slip away from their hands.
England put up 353 runs on the board in the first inning, thanks to a Joe Root masterclass who put up an unbeaten 122 runs on the board, with 10 fours coming off his bat. English spinners Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir then wreaked havoc against Indian batters in the inning as India lost quick wickets with Yashavsi Jaiswal being the only top-order batter to score more than 50 runs.
However, Dhruv Jurel who stepped out after Sarfaraz Khan lost his wicket, built a 76-run stand with No.9 batter Kuldeep Yadav to provide stability to Indian batting. Scoring 90 runs with 6 fours and 4 sixes, Jurel took India to 307 runs at the end of the first innings, reducing the lead from 134 runs on Day 2 to 46 runs on Day 3.
England's plans to score big in the second innings and post a massive total for India were spoilt when Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav picked up 9 wickets between them, to restrict England to a mere 145 runs in the second innings on Day 3.
The Indian openers then walked out to bat and concluded the third day with 40/0 on the board. Openers Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal continued the fourth day with a dominating show as the former also completed his half-century, being the main force driving the team's chase.
However, the situation changed when the openers departed as India lost quick wickets post that. Coming to the rescue again, Dhruv Jurel and Shubman Gill, who also completed a half-century in the process, built an unbeaten 72-run partnership to help Team India record a 5-wicket win over England in Ranchi and seal a remarkable series victory.
Netizens are all over social media, applauding the Men in blue for their resilient efforts:
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