4th Test, D5: India, 358 & 425-4, drew with England, 669
India lose just two wickets on final day to rescue match
At the end of five exhausting days that produced plenty of memories but no outright winner, it was India who were celebrating. England made most of the running in this fourth Test, only to be thwarted by an impressive rearguard on the final day and left grumbling by the pursuit of two milestones that delayed the handshakes.
Sitting 2-1 down with one to play, Shubman Gill’s tourists can no longer win the series outright but they now head to the Oval buoyed by drawing this game. Ben Stokes gave it everything – 141 in England’s first innings, six wickets with the ball – and could reflect on his finest all-round match by way of numbers but this was scant consolation, one suspects, having pushed through the pain barrier for the result he dislikes the most.
It was just the second time that a Test has ended as a stalemate under his captaincy, but unlike the previous one – that soggy affair here two years ago, when England’s hopes of regaining the Ashes were washed away – there were no gripes about the Manchester weather. The final day stayed dry and India, who started it on 174 for two, still 137 runs in arrears, batted all three sessions for the loss of just two more.
