4th Test: Gill and Rahul lead India's fightback with unbeaten fifties, keep England at bay

Manchester, July 26 (IANS) KL Rahul and Shubman Gill led India’s defiant fightback via smashing their respective fifties and sharing an unbroken 174-run partnership off 361 balls to keep England at bay, as the visitors’ reached 174/2 in 63 overs at stumps on day four of fourth Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy Test at Old Trafford

Though the prospect of going for a draw is still faraway, as they trail by 137 runs, Rahul and Gill, unbeaten on 87 and 78 respectively, have given India and its fans a fighting chance of saving the match, something which looked improbable at one point.

At 0/2 in five balls of the second innings, Gill came in on a hat-trick ball with India under immense pressure, but he and Rahul – two calm individuals in their demeanour and temperament – showed their skill and immense mental toughness to have consecutive wicketless sessions.

The final session began with Rahul and Gill being watchful for quite some time before the former got his first boundary by guiding Jofra Archer late through third man for four, before bringing up his half-century.

While Gill turned out to old-school batting mode, Rahul let go of menacing bouncers from Archer and hit boundaries on the ones which were short and wide, before Gill drove him through cover for four more.

Against Chris Woakes, used his pace to cut between slip and gully for four, before slashing a wide ball through point for another boundary. When spinners Liam Dawson and Joe Root came on, Rahul and Gill were happy rotating the strike against them, apart from taking a boundary before stumps came on an engrossing day of Test cricket, which in turn has set the stage for a gripping day five.

Brief Scores: India 358 and 174/2 in 63 overs (KL Rahul 87 not out, Shubman Gill 78 not out; Chris Woakes 2-48) trail England 669 in 157.1 overs (Joe Root 150, Ben Stokes 141; Ravindra Jadeja 4-143, Washington Sundar 2-107) by 137 runs.

--IANS

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