1st India-England Test, Day 4: India needs 381 on final day
England removes Rohit Sharma for 12
Chennai, Feb 8 (PTI) India lost opener Rohit Sharma early while chasing a daunting 420-run target, ending day four of the first Test against England at 39 for 1 here on Monday.
Shubman Gill and Cheteshwar Pujara were in the middle on 15 and 12 respectively when stumps were drawn for the day. The hosts need another 381 runs for an improbable win on day five.
India batted for 13 overs in the final session after England were all out for 178 in the second innings.
Rohit was dismissed cheaply for the second time in the game with left-arm spinner Jack Leach getting through his defence with a beauty.
Australian great Shane Warne was among those who questioned England's tactics in the final session during which they could have declared before being bowled out.
The visitors found the going tough in their second essay after bowling out India for 337 in their first innings to take a 241-run lead.
If India manage to chase the target it will be highest ever successful run chase in Test history. The previous best is 418.
Like the Gabba Test, Washington Sundar came to India's rescue with an unbeaten 85 after the home team resumed the day at 257 for six.
England though struggled a bit as the pitch became tougher for stroke-making. Skipper Joe Root was top-scorer with his 40-run knock while Ollie Pope (28) was the next best.
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who dismissed opener Rory Burns earlier in the day, snared Dominic Sibley (16), Ben Stokes (7), Dom Bess (25) and Jofra Archer (5) to complete his 28th five-wicket haul.
He also got rid of James Anderson to end the England innings.
Ishant Sharma became the sixth Indian and third pacer from the country to take 300 wickets in Tests cricket when he dismissed Dan Lawrence (18).
Brief Scores:
England: 578 and 178 in 46.3 overs (Joe Root 40, Ollie Pope 28; Ravichandran Ashwin 6/61)
India 1st innings: 337 and 39/1 in 13 overs (Shubman Gill batting 15, Cheteshwar Pujara batting 12; Jack Leach 1/21).
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
