Record-setting Gill leads India to within sight of big win over England in second test

BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — India was powering toward a massive series-tying victory over England in the second test at Edgbaston after a record-setting Day 4 performance by Shubman Gill on Saturday.

Gill, in his first series as India captain, became the first player to score a double hundred and a 150 in the same test by making 161 in his team’s 427-6 declared in the second innings. That followed his 269 in the first-innings 587. His personal match total of 430 runs was behind just former England opener Graham Gooch (456 against India in 1990) in the all-time records book.

It handed the English a target of 608 — making it by some way a world-record chase — and they slumped to 72-3 by stumps. Zak Crawley (0), Ben Duckett (25) and key batter Joe Root (6) were dismissed.

England required 536 more runs to win. Even for a group as aggressive and ambitious as this ‘Bazball’ crop of players, a draw was surely the best they could hope for — and even that was highly improbable.

India will be favored to make it 1-1 in the series and Gill is leading the charge, even if his declaration might be regarded as conservative. England fans were certainly displeased with the India skipper making his team bat on until the drinks break in the last session, as they chanted, “Boring, boring India.”

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What can’t be denied was Gill’s excellence with the bat as the Indians racked up more runs — 1,014 — than they’ve ever scored in a test match.

He hit 13 fours and eight sixes in his 162-ball knock that was relatively sedate early on — especially compared to Rishabh Pant at the other end either side of lunch as the wicketkeeper made an incident-filled, bat-tossing 65 — before he opened his shoulders as he headed to the 150 mark.

It was a chanceless innings before Gill top-edged a return catch to off-spinner Shoaib Bashir. Such was the quality of Gill’s display that Bashir and England captain Ben Stokes shook his hand as he walked off the field.

Gill is just the second Indian, after the great Sunil Gavaskar (124 and 220) against the West Indies in 1971, to score a double-hundred and a hundred in the same test.

Pant brings the chaos

Pant’s innings was a wild crowd-pleaser that validated his status as one of cricket’s most flamboyant batters.

The end came when he attempted to pull Bashir for six — only to miscue the shot while also letting go of his bat, which flew toward midwicket and to the feet of England fielder Brydon Carse. Meanwhile, the ball looped high in the air and into the deep on the offside where it was caught by Duckett.

Carse collected the bat and returned it to Pant, who walked off to an ovation after his 16th test fifty. It was the second time Pant released his bat making a shot, with the other seeing it fly 20 meters, behind square leg.

India began the day on 64-1 — with a lead of 244 runs — and lost two wickets before lunch. Karun Nair (26) drove and edged Carse to wicketkeeper Jamie Smith, while Lokesh Rahul (55) lost his middle stump to a seaming delivery by pacer Josh Tongue.

Ravindra Jadeja was unbeaten on 69 when Gill declared.

England’s top order flattened

England was facing a mighty, overwhelming target and made a poor start with a seventh duck of the match as Crawley meekly drove Mohammed Siraj to backward point.

That was 11-1 and it was soon 30-2 when Duckett glanced an inside edge onto his own stumps off pacer Akash Deep.

With 15 minutes remaining, Deep got another as a seaming delivery was too good for Root and went through his defense onto the stumps.

Ollie Pope (24) and Harry Brook (15) were the men in the middle at the close.

England leads the series after winning at Headingley last week, reaching a target of 371 for the 10th highest fourth-innings run chase in test history.

India looks to have too many on the board this time.

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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket