Relentless India punished England all day and left it staring at another defeat after just two days of the fifth and final Test here.
Notwithstanding the late flurry of wickets, Friday saw India score 338 runs to reach 473 for eight and lead by 255 runs.
Overnight batters Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma converted their half-centuries into centuries, something that debutant Devdutt Padikkal and Sarfaraz Khan could not.
A wicketless first session saw Rohit and Gill score 129 runs to put India 46 runs ahead of England’s 218. They reached their centuries in the space of three deliveries.
Gill was more aggressive of the two in reaching his fourth Test century after Rohit posted his 14th — sixth since 2021 — and maintained the solidity seen on the previous evening.
The second session — that produced 112 runs — proved more eventful.
Skipper Ben Stokes, whose last Test wicket came on June 28, 2023, chose to bowl after seven Tests since then. He opened the second over after lunch and bowled Rohit off his first delivery. The ball beat a rather casual Rohit to find the off-stump, much to the joy of Stokes’ team-mates even as the skipper remained expressionless.
Like it happens so often, the end of a long partnership — of 171 runs in this case — the partners departed in quick succession.
Gill, after hitting two boundaries of James Anderson in the first over after lunch, fell in the following over from the 41-year-old for the sixth time. The reverse-swing in the 63rd over foxed Gill and took the off-stump for a walk.
Two wickets in eight deliveries for England brought Sarfaraz and Padikkal together. A fortuitous edge past the lone slip saw the Karnataka left-hander get his first Test runs. He rode his luck to play some glorious strokes on both sides of the pitch. Soon Sarfaraz settled down and dominated the 97-run stand with some free-flowing shots in the hour before tea to reach a 55-ball 51, his third Test half-century.
Much like the post-lunch session, the post-tea play witnessed England taste early success. Sarfaraz departed by offering Joe Root, the lone slip, a low catch. Padikkal, who reached his 50 with a six off Bashir, went on to hit a couple of boundaries off Hartley before being bowled by the former.
If England lost three wickets at 175, India lost three in the space of one run. Bashir lured Dhruv Jurel to hole out to Ben Duckett at long-on for his fourth wicket. In the next over, Hartley ended Ravindra Jadeja’s struggle and sent back R. Ashwin for a duck in his 100th Test.
With India eight down at 428 and 18 overs remaining for stumps, the possibility of England getting to bat appeared bright. But Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah frustrated England with their unbroken 45-run stand.
