Kolkata, Dec 7: Just when it looked like India were going to succumb to an innings defeat against England at the Eden Gardens, a valiant knock by R Ashwin helped the hosts post a 32-run lead with a wicket in hand at the end of Day 4. The No.8 batsman remained unbeaten on 83 with Pragyan Ojha (3*) keeping him company at the other end.
Earlier, resuming from their overnight total of 509/6, England lost their remaining wickets in a heap. Graeme Swann was the first man to depart today for the visitors; he fell to Pragyan Ojha for an individual score of 21. Matt Prior (41) was caught behind by MS Dhoni off Zaheer Khan in the next over itself. James Anderson was the next man to return to the pavilion; the tailender edged a catch to Virender Sehwag off R Ashwin. The last wicket to fall was that of Monty Panesar, who was trapped leg before wicket by Ashwin.
India began their second innings 207 runs in the red. They were given a solid, albeit lucky, start by Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. The duo stitched together 86 runs, before Sehwag (49) was clean bowled by Graeme Swann off the first ball after lunch. Thereafter, the Indian batsmen failed to make any significant impact on the scorecard. Cheteshwar Pujara was run out by Ian Bell with India on 98/2. This brought Sachin Tendulkar to the crease.
However, this also failed to revive India’s slump as Gambhir (40) edged a Steve Finn delivery into the gloves of Matt Prior. Tendulkar (5) was the next man to depart, when he was caught in the slips by Jonathan Trott off Swann. James Anderson then bowled Yuvraj Singh (11) off a delivery that kept low. Anderson followed this dismissal with the wicket of Indian skipper MS Dhoni (0).
Virat Kohli (20) was the next man to be dismissed; the right-hander became Finn’s second victim of the afternoon. Finn soon trapped Zaheer Khan (0) leg before wicket, and took England a step closer to a 2-1 series lead. However, the new man at the crease, Ishant Sharma, and Ashwin had other ideas; the pair added 38 runs for the ninth wicket, before Sharma (10) was finally bowled by Panesar. With just a wicket in hand and 10.3 overs to be played in the day, Ashwin and Ojha put together an unbroken 42-run stand to deny the visitors an innings victory and thereby pushing the Test match into its fifth and final day.
Brief scores:
At the end of Day 4: England 1st innings 523 all out in 167.3 overs (A Cook 190, J Trott 87; PP Ojha 4/142); India 2nd innings 239/9 in 83 overs (R Ashwin 83*, V Sehwag 49; S Finn 3/37)
At the end of Day 3: England 1st innings 509/6 in 163 overs (A Cook 190, J Trott 87, PP Ojha 3/140)
At the end of Day 2: India 1st innings 316 all out in 105 overs (MS Dhoni 52, 4/90); England 1st innings 216/1 in 73 overs (A Cook 136*, N Compton 57, J Trott 21*, PP Ojha 1/65)
At the end of Day 1: India 1st innings 273/7 in 90 overs (SR Tendulkar 76, G Gambhir 60, J Anderson 3/68, M Panesar 2/74)
