India totally dominated Day 3 of the ongoing fourth Test match against England on Sunday to take complete control of the game. Youngster Dhruv Jurel smashed a defining 90 to put India alive in the game and then spinners utilized playing conditions on Ranchi's cracked-up surface to stumble England's second innings to 145.
After a balanced surface in the first three matches of this series, both teams witnessed a lot of help for spinners in Ranchi. England spinners also read the conditions well enough to bowl out India on 307 in the first innings. Youngster Shoaib Bashir claimed his first five-wicket haul in international cricket while Tom Hartley picked three wickets.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja started with a new ball with the former dominating the surface with three early wickets. Ashwin clinched a record 35th five-wicket haul in Test innings and Kuldeep made an impact with four for 22 to bowl out the Three Lions on 145 in 53.5 overs.
England's run-rate of 2.69 in the second innings proved the lowest under Ben Stoke's captaincy. England have displayed remarkable aggressive cricket since Stokes and Brendon McCullum's appointment to captain and head coach role in 2022.
England scored 353 runs at a run rate of 3.37 in the first innings in Ranchi and now their combined run rate of 3.13 across both innings is the lowest under the Stokes-McCullum era. England are yet to taste a series loss under Stokes' leadership having dominantly won 13 of 19 Test matches before the India tour.
Meanwhile, chasing a 191-run target, Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal denied England any chance to stage a comeback. The duo added 40 runs without losing a wicket and now India need only 152 runs to win the Ranchi Test and seal the series.
