The visiting side Indian cricket team failed to save the five-match Test series in the ongoing English tour after losing the fourth Test by 60 runs at The Rose Bowl (Southampton) after a late batting collapse on the fourth day of this Test match.
England began the day four on the overnight score 260/8 and lost Stuart Broad on the first ball of the day to Mohammad Shami, who also dismissed Adil Rashid on the last ball of the previous day. However, he missed the hat-trick chance but soon the England innings were wrapped up after the overnight unbeaten batsman Sam Curran was run out on 46 runs. England team was bundled out for 271 runs and put a challenging 245-run target for India to level the Test series.
During England’s second innings, Indian pacer Mohammed Shami (4/57) picked up four wickets while Ishant Sharma (2/36) got two wickets and Ravichandran Ashwin (1/84) and Jasprit Bumrah (1/51) claimed one wicket each.
Chasing down the challenging target, India lost their top three batsmen very early as they went down to 22/3. Openers Shikhar Dhawan (17) and KL Rahul (0) failed to provide the good starts while the first innings centurion Cheteshwar Pujara was trapped for lbw on just 5 runs.
Skipper Virat Kohli and the Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane rescued the team in the middle stage with a crucial 101-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Both the players completed their half-centuries but then failed to carry their innings for the longer period.
Once that partnership was broken with Kohli’s (58) dismissal, Indian batting suffered a huge collapse that led by English off-spinner Moeen Ali and the visitors were bundled out for just 184 runs. Rahane lost his wicket on 51 runs while the young wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant (18) and the experienced off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (25) were the only other Indian batsmen in that innings to reach the double-figures scores.
Comeback man Moeen Ali (4/71) picked up four wickets in that innings and made his tally to nine wickets in the Test match. Also, James Anderson (2/33) and Ben Stokes (2/34) bagged two wickets each while Stuart Broad (1/23) and Sam Curran (1/1) got one wicket each.
England won this fourth Test by 60 runs and secured the five-match Test series by leading 3-1 margin. Ali received the Player of the Match award for his crucial game-changing performances in this game.
Here are some Twitter reactions:
7 of them added a total of 61 runs after Kohli got out. And 3 of them added 17 runs before he came in. There is a problem & it's a big one outside Asia. This team is far more reliant on Kohli than earlier teams were on Sachin. Also time to take a hard look at Hardik. #ENGvsIND
— Sumanth Raman (@sumanthraman) September 2, 2018
If England’s lower order bastmen can contribute thn m sure Indian top order batsmen are much better. Let’s do it indiaaaaaa #ENGvsIND
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) September 2, 2018
Irrespective of the outcome of this Test match, the English Batsmen almost as bad as the Indians on these pitches. The only difference is the English bowling attack. #EngvsInd
— Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) September 2, 2018
Seriously.. some people were buoyed by Kohli-Rahane partnership and claiming India is on top. It was a matter of just one wicket, and Kohli is not an infallible superman. Was bound to make mistake sooner or later. Individual brilliance can win a match, not series #ENGvsIND
— Navneet Mundhra (@navneet_mundhra) September 2, 2018
Anil Kumble right now #ENGvsIND pic.twitter.com/eswAU6S33I
— Goan Patiala (@TheGoanPatiala) September 2, 2018
India should be dissappointed with the result… great fight shown by Kohli & Rahane but blame is entirely on Ashwin's C grade level of spin bowling. Curran's inns was again the difference b/w two sides. #ENGvsIND
— Romeo Rajat (@RomeoRajat2) September 2, 2018
A brilliant, brilliant Test Match and what a fabulous return mA for Moeen Ali. Any victory over India is a great result but this was special. Excellent choices of Curran and Buttler vindicates Root et al.
Great to be back to a Summer of cricket in Blighty. 🤗#ENGvsIND
— Abu Eesa Niamatullah (@Niamatullah) September 2, 2018
Proper Test Cricket this. @ECB_cricket has ruining India's hope. Excellent fight. #ENGvsIND
— Atiq-uz-Zaman (@Atiq160Test) September 2, 2018
#ENGvsIND
1. How others see #Moeen Ali
2. How team India sees #Moeen Ali pic.twitter.com/X6YmsMHev9— Saineeli_Jsk (@jsk475) September 2, 2018
Me after watching indian batting lineup😓😓😓#virat #kohli #viratkohli #rahane #ajinkyarahane #indvseng #indveng #engvsind #engvind #teamindia #bcci #i pic.twitter.com/uxmaGVaKYR
— Ramesh Kumar Prk (@prkramesh135) September 2, 2018
Live Visual : Pics from India's Practice Session showing Head Coach Ravi Shashtri teaching @klrahul11 steps of "Ek pal ka jeena" !! #IndvsEng #ENDvIND #ENGvsIND #KLRahul #INDvEND #ViratKohli pic.twitter.com/WDOrWel5hI
— Sir Yuzvendra Chahal (@SirChahal) September 2, 2018
Again, what could have been.
Sam Curran made the difference with the bat both in the first test as well as here, but Moeen Ali was the difference between the two sides.— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) September 2, 2018
Chasing any total in the 4th innings can be tricky and has an additional pressure but this Indian team has the potential to chase down this total. I pray and wish that they play to their potential . Should be an interesting run chase
— VVS Laxman (@VVSLaxman281) September 2, 2018
Lower order contribution is indeed the difference between the two teams…but that was known to us and couldn’t have been matched. India had to score their runs with the top order…didn’t happen often enough. #EngvInd
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) September 2, 2018
There is never one factor that decides the result of a Test. But in the final essay the difference between Moeen & Ashwin proved to be the difference between the two sides.#ENGvIND
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) September 2, 2018
India have had their moments in every test match barring Lord's. But moments don't win series and it is back now to introspection.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) September 2, 2018
