- Friday, March 14, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
ENGLAND returned to their ‘fourth innings blitzkrieg’ in the fifth and final Test match against India at Edgbaston in Birmingham to give their fans much to cheer. Chasing 378 to level the series 2-2, the home team was cruising at 259 for 3 at stumps on the penultimate day, requiring 119 runs in exactly 100 overs with seven wickets intact.
England’s in-form batters Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow, who hit a century in the first innings, were the two unbeaten batters for England on 76 and 72, respectively. They added 150 runs for the fourth wicket after the hosts witnessed a mini collapse after their openers Alex Lees (56) and Zak Crawley (46) gave them a flying start and put up 107 runs for the first wicket.
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For India, stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah was the only successful bowler with two wickets.
Earlier in the day, India resumed from their overnight score of 125 for 3 but the pair of Cheteshwar Pujara (66) and Rishabh Pant (57) could add only 28 runs before it was broken. None other than them got a decent run in the second innings as the visitors were bowled out for 245, which gave them a total lead of 377. Captain Ben Stokes was the pick of the England bowlers with four wickets for 33 runs while Stuart Broad and Matthew Potts took two wickets each.
Brief scores: India 416 & 245 vs England 284 & 259 for 3 at stumps on Day 4
