IN PICS: England's chances dented by Cook's dismissal

Sport360 staff 15:41 20/11/2016

Chasing 405 to win in the fourth innings, England openers Alastair Cook and Haseeb Hameed displayed some defiant batting, denying India any breakthroughs for more than 50 overs on day four. The duo batted for a total of 302 deliveries, putting on 75 runs for the first wicket.

Hameed is nicknamed ‘Baby Boycott’ and he showed us why with a 144-ball 25 before he was dismissed in an unlucky manner as a delivery from Ravichandran Ashwin stayed low and he was struck plumb in front of the stumps.

Cook, on the other hand, showed us again why he is considered as one of the best Test batsmen of this generation, registering his 53rd half-century in the longest format of the game.

The England captain was dismissed in the final over of the day and that will be a hard pill to swallow for the visitors as the momentum going into the final day’s play is now with India.

Earlier, the Indian middle and lower-order collapsed under some brilliant bowling from the English bowlers – particularly Stuart Broad and Adil Rashid. Both picked up four wickets each as India were bowled out for 204.

Captain Virat Kohli was the shining light for India with the bat yet again, top scoring with 81. At one point, it looked like England will be chasing a sub-400 target in the fourth innings, but a 42-run tenth wicket partnership between Jayant Yadav and Mohammed Shami ensured otherwise.

It’ll be interesting to see what kind of approach England adopt on the final day. Will they go for the target or will they continue playing for survival?

BRIEF SCORES

India 455 all out [Kohli 167, Anderson 3/62] and 204 all out [Kohli 81, Broad 4/33] v/s England 255 all out [Stokes 70, Ashwin 5/67] and 87/2 [Cook 54, Jadeja 1/25]

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