England fightback sets up another final-day Headingley cliffhanger

Times

23-06-2025

Headingley has not disappointed. This wonderful cricket ground that has produced more great players and more memorable matches than anywhere else in England has offered up a treat, with both teams pecking away at each other relentlessly. India have dominated for long periods but, because of their lower-order frailty, have not been quite able to shake England off completely. Another treat is in store for the final day.
That is exactly how the fourth day panned out. India dominated the first two sessions with superb, contrasting hundreds from their master technician, KL Rahul, and their laughing cavalier of a wicketkeeper-batsman, Rishabh Pant. As thoughts turned to a possible declaration — a tricky one, too, given the history of the ground as a good place to chase and the reputation of this England team, who like to do so — a clatter of wickets came with the second new ball.
India lost seven wickets for 41 in their first innings, to leave the door open, and lost their last six wickets for 31 in the second. By the time Prasidh Krishna, the last man, joined Ravindra Jadeja the lead was 355, only a few shy of the mark England were asked to make here, famously, against Australia in 2019 when Ben Stokes, the miracle man, saw them home. India's last pair eventually stretched that lead to 370, which Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett reduced by 21 in the final six overs of the day.
A target of 371, then, with 350 more required on the final day. To win it, England will have to make the second-highest fourth-innings score in Tests on this ground and their second-highest of all time. And they will have to do so against Jasprit Bumrah. In their favour is a pitch that remains largely true, a seam-bowling support cast that is vulnerable and the confidence they will take from their recent fourth-innings chases — not least the last time these two teams met at Edgbaston, when England made 378 for three to win batting last.
It would be silly to discount all possibilities. England have drawn only one match under Stokes's captaincy, when two days of rain prevented victory in the Ashes at Old Trafford, and a second cannot be discounted. Of the two positive results, India are favourites and Bumrah and the left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja will be the key, but what Shubman Gill would give to have the left-arm wrist-spinner, Kuldeep Yadav, at his disposal. The way Crawley, playing straighter than in the first innings, and Duckett got through with no real alarms raised England's hopes.
India began the day 96 runs ahead, and had to repel some excellent seam bowling in the morning session from Brydon Carse. Until their late wobble, in fact, they showed how to do what Stokes, before the game, had asked his team to improve in doing, which is soak up pressure when necessary and play the situation smartly. Only 63 runs came in the first session, as England pressed hard, but then the acceleration came with Rahul and Pant adding 81 in the hour after lunch, and 145 in the middle session all told. Brilliant batting.
Rahul was given one life on 58 by Harry Brook in the gully but made a very accomplished ninth Test hundred, and his eighth outside India. Rahul, according to Ollie Pope the night before, was the most prized wicket of all, and, as he dealt expertly with the occasional inconsistent bounce at the Football Stand end, it was easy to see why. With his blue bandana and tattoos adorning his body, Rahul is a very modern cricketer, but his batting conforms to some ancient principles.
Solid in defence, sideways on, light on his feet, back and forward according to the length of the ball, able to drop his hands to the rising ball because he plays beside it, not behind it, he is a technically superb batsman. His driving through the off side is a joy to watch, as he leans into the ball so gracefully, and fittingly that was how he went to his hundred in the afternoon session.
The curious thing is that his Test average was a relatively lowly 33 heading into this game, because he looks a more accomplished player than that, but his role here became more important following the retirements of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, as he brings vital experience of English conditions. His first-innings score was important in setting a platform and he added to that impressively.
Pant is a completely different player but so, so dangerous and he became only the second wicketkeeper in the history of the game, after Andy Flower, to make two hundreds in the same Test, and the first India batsman to achieve that feat against England. He now has four hundreds against England, has had a brilliant match with the bat and will now bring his influence and game awareness to bear standing up to Jadeja on the final day.
He plays in joyful and carefree manner, as if by numbers from time to time, and was lucky early on, dancing down the pitch to his second ball only to edge the ball over the slips. He aimed an early slog-sweep, surviving only because the blustery wind took the top edge away from the chasing pack, and beat a leg-before shout, having fallen over again sweeping, because of a faint inside edge.
Over the stump microphones, Pant could be heard gently chiding himself and telling himself to calm down, and eventually he heeded his own advice. After that, until lunch, there was precious little to report from him, except a steady accumulation of runs. After lunch, Stokes sat back, curiously for him, as if in deference to the danger Pant offers.
Stokes set a defensive field, one absent of slips, and twice Pant edged Josh Tongue through there. Once he had passed his half-century and not content any more to milk Shoaib Bashir, Pant attacked, sending the off spinner for two mighty sixes down the ground. Then he applied the brakes again, spending 26 balls in the nineties, and determined to avoid the fate that has befallen him five times in the nineties. There was no cartwheeling celebration this time.
With England there for the taking, Pant holed out with the new ball imminent. Carse got Rahul with it, dragging on, which was deserved, given his earlier excellence. Chris Woakes finally got in on the act, by taking a smart return catch from Karun Nair and, as in the first innings, Tongue nipped out the tail. England's bowling, though better in the second innings, has looked largely ineffective across the game: Woakes's figures were an unflattering one for 148; Bashir's were three for 190 and only one of Tongue's seven wickets was of a top-six batsman.