Massive 195-run stand between KL Rahul (137) and Rishabh Pant (118) puts visitors on top before a surge of wickets leaves Test evenly poised; at stumps on Day 4, England are 21-0, chasing 371 for victory
India’s KL Rahul during his 137 against England at Headingley, Leeds, on Monday. Pic/Bipin Patel
There were several similarities between India’s first and second innings in the first Test at Headingley. A powerhouse top-order display, a singularly unedifying late-order collapse. And an extraordinary century from a special player.
Until Josh Tongue orchestrated a manic meltdown that included three wickets in a single over with the second new ball, Monday’s fourth day had been primarily about the fire of Rishabh Pant and the ice of KL Rahul, clearly relishing a settled place at the top of the order and his status as the elder statesman of the batting unit. Pant smashed numerous records on his way to becoming only the second wicketkeeper, after Andy Flower against South Africa in 2001, to score twin hundreds in the same Test, while Rahul’s ninth ton was his third in England, the most by an Indian opener in this country.
Wonderful Test match
All of this translated to a second-innings score of 364, leaving England needing 371 in a wonderful Test match that has swung one way and then the other. At stumps England were 21-0.
Pant joined Rahul after skipper Shubman Gill fell to the seventh delivery of the day, chopping Brydon Carse on to his stumps, defeated by bounce and inward movement when India had added just two to their overnight 90 for two. A blustery wind that blew all day and foreboding grey clouds kept Carse and Chris Woakes interested, posing numerous challenges that Rahul and Pant met in contrasting ways.
The right-handed opener was a picture of correctness and composure, leaving the ball beautifully, playing the original line and refusing to allow his bat to be drawn towards the ball when it moved late. Pant stuck with the outrageous even by Pant standards and rode his luck, swipes and charges and mows either failing to make contact with the cherry or landing tantalisingly out of reach of desperately scrambling fielders.
Pant on the prowl
A wicket seemed imminent every time Pant was on strike while there was no danger of Rahul throwing his hand away, but either ways, the cricket was gripping. Carse especially got the ball to climb alarmingly off a length to Rahul when he bowled from the Kirkstall Lane End, but the opener adjusted beautifully, watching the ball like a hawk and playing it late and below his eyes even as he guided Pant through his early frenetic phase.
Having come unscathed through that period of hit-and-miss, Pant bedded down to grind out a 83-ball half-century, after which he went into overdrive with an audacious onslaught that took the wind out of England’s sails. While Rahul eased to a 202-ball century — his seventh outside Asia — Pant needed only 130.
The stand was ended at 195 when Pant was caught at long-on, but the cat was among the pigeons after Rahul’s patient vigil ended on 137. India lost their last six wickets for 31 — it was seven for 41 in the first dig – to give themselves a shot on a pitch starting to play a few tricks.
Brief scores
India 471 & 364 (KL Rahul 137, R Pant 118, S Sudharsan 30; J Tongue 3-72, B Carse 3-80, S Bashir 2-90) vs England 465 & 21-0 (Z Crawley 12*)
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