ENG vs IND | Klassy Rahul and Pant extravaganza on Day 4 set England 371 to take home Headingley honours

Resuming from an overnight score of 92/2, India got Monday off to a disastrous start with Shubman Gill chopping on a Brydon Carse delivery without troubling the scorers on the morning. With the skies overcast and the Leeds surface beginning to show signs of wear, Carse and Chris Woakes delivered exceptional spells to further mount pressure on the hosts but KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant stood resolute. The former retreated into his shell and wore blows on his body, almost losing his middle stump to a Waokes jaffa at one point, while Pant charged and slogged every now and again albeit even his game reflected signs of restraint. Nevertheless, the duo managed to weather the storm and add 61 runs together before heading off for Lunch at 153/3.

The second session was from a different dimension altogether as Pant decided it was time to throw caution to the wind. In the hour after the break, the wicket-keeper batter struck seven boundaries and two maximums to go past 50 and inch closer to Rahul's tally. The Karnataka batter brought up his ninth Test ton in the 62nd over and after a 26-ball stay in the nervous nineties, where Ben Stokes tried to lure him into a false shot by bringing Joe Root, Pant replicated the feat in just 130 deliveries. However, in the very next over after raising his bat, Pant dug into Root, banishing him for two boundaries and a maximum. By the time he holed out four balls later, the partnership had ticked over to 195 and Karun Nair got through the remaining three overs before Tea without much trouble with the score reading 297/4.

The third session began on a more somber note as Nair tried to get his footing while Rahul found the occassional boundary, their partnership closing in on a half-century. However, Carse ensured the feat did not realize with a snorter to have Rahul play on for 137, before Nair chipped one straight back to Woakes the very next over to hand the pacer his first scalp of the Test. A collapse similar to the first innings followed thereafter, this time the last seven wickets worth 77 runs as opposed to 41 courtesy of a 25-run cameo from Ravindra Jadeja, with Josh Tongue once again playing destructor to equal Carse's tally of three scalps and set England 371 to chase.

Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley thus walked out with half an hour of play remaining, which meant surviving a sharp new ball burst from Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. The duo aced the challenge with aplomb to end Day 4 at 21/0. 

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