England vs India, 4th Test: Virat Kohli Perishes at the Stroke of Tea, Ajinkya Rahane Holds Key

After a horrendous opening session for Team India on the day four of the fourth and penultimate Test against England at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton, the visiting team bounced back strongly in the second session. But they lost the big wicket of Virat Kohli just before tea which put England in a commanding position. Ajinkya Rahane on the other end looks to carry on with his innings,

The visitors had a pretty poor opening session where they lost the wickets of KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara and Shikhar Dhawan respectively. The visitors were reduced to 22 for three. However, in the second session, the visiting team batted quite superbly.

Captain Kohli and Rahane shared a 100-run stand as India reached 126 for four at the tea interval. Both Kohli and Rahane batted very sensibly and ensured England bowlers were defied for a considerable amount of time.

However, just when India looked in command of the proceedings and looked like taking the match away from the hosts, it was off-spinner and first innings hero with the ball, Moeen Ali who provided the much-needed breakthrough.

Kohli batted for 130 deliveries and scored a valiant 58. Rahane, on the other hand, is also approaching his hard-fought half-century.

Hardik Pandya has just come out to the crease at the fall of Kohli’s wicket. India will be looking to build another partnership.

Eventually, it won’t be an easy task as the Indian lower middle order is pretty vulnerable. Pandya, Rishabh Pant and Ravichandran Ashwin are all short of runs, and it will be a tough task for visitors to chase the remaining 119 runs.

England vs India 2018, 4th Test Southampton – Brief Scores:

England 1^st innings 246 all-out in 76.4 overs (Sam Curran 78, Jasprit Bumrah 3/46)

India 1^st innings 273 all-out in 84.5 overs (Cheteshwar Pujara 132, Moeen Ali 5/63)

England 2nd innings 271 all-out in 96.1 overs (Jos Buttler 69, Mohammed Shami 4/57)

India 2nd innings 126/4 in 53 overs (Virat Kohli 58, Ajinkya Rahane 44, James Anderson 2/33)

India needs 119 more runs to win and level the five-match series two each with one to be held at The Oval.