Ranchi, Feb 24: Yashasvi Jaiswal continued his good showing in the series with an unbeaten fifty, but off-spinner Shoaib Bashir’s triple strike gave a late boost to England in the second session on day two of the fourth Test at the JSCA International Stadium on Saturday.

At tea, India are 131/4 in 38 overs and trail England by 222 runs, with Jaiswal unbeaten on 54 while Sarfaraz Khan is not out on one. It was a session where India were comfortably placed at 86/1, but slipped to 130/4, as Bashir made the most out of pitch assisting spinners to take 3-32.

The session began with Shubman Gill effortlessly driving Bashir through extra cover for four, followed by flicking and driving off James Anderson for a brace of boundaries. Jaiswal continued his solid show by lofting Bashir over long-on for six and had a narrow escape when Ollie Robinson extracted an outside edge, which was dying on keeper Ben Foakes.

Foakes felt he cleanly took the catch, but replays showed the ball bouncing before going into the gloves. Gill brought his fast hands into play by cracking a cut and guiding off Ollie Robinson for back-to-back fours, before being trapped lbw by Bashir via a delivery which turned sharply to beat the inside edge.

Gill went for a review, but replays showed ball hitting stumps, bringing an end to his 82-run partnership with Jaiswal, who got his fourth fifty plus score of the series with a single off Tom Hartley.

Rajat Patidar impressed with his dabs, flicks and punches to collect four boundaries quickly, but fell to Bashir after being trapped lbw by the one which skidded on from outside off. The DRS showed ball hitting leg-stump, with the impact on umpire’s call, meaning Patidar’s stay ended at 17.

Ravindra Jadeja smashed back-to-back leg-side sixes off Hartley after surviving an lbw review on the previous delivery. But Bashir bowled a top-spinner from the good length and had some extra bounce to catch Jadeja's inside edge and the ball lobbed to Ollie Pope at short leg, giving him his third wicket. India will rely heavily on Jaiswal and Sarfaraz to bail them out of trouble.

Brief Scores: England 353 in 104.5 overs (Joe Root 122 not out, Ollie Robinson 58; Ravindra Jadeja 4-67, Akash Deep 3-83) lead India 131/4 in 38 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 54 not out; Shoaib Bashir 3-32) by 222 runs.

(IANS)

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