Manchester Test: England dominate India; terrible 2nd innings start for visitors with just 1/2 at lunch

MANCHESTER: A stellar batting performance from England skipper Ben Stokes helped The Three Lions to finish their first innings on 669, leading by 311 runs against India in the fourth Test at Manchester on Saturday.

This is England’s second-highest total against India, only behind 710/7d at Edgbaston, 2011. India had a poor start to their second innings, losing Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sai Sudharsan in the first over for zero runs each. India were 1/2 at Lunch with KL Rahul 1* and Shubman Gill 0* unbeaten on the crease.

England started Day 4 on day at 544/7, leading by 186 runs with Ben Stokes (77) and Liam Dawson (21*) unbeaten on the crease. Jasprit Bumrah gave an early blow to the hosts as he removed Dawson 26 in the 140th over and Brydon Carse, joined England skipper on the crease.

Is there anything he can’t do?

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— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 26, 2025

In the 146th over, Stokes smashed a four to bring up his 14th Test century. He bagged a five-wicket haul while bowling in the first innings, after a long wait of eight years, and now he brings up a Test century in the same match. A ton in the longest format, almost three years after.

He also became the fifth captain to have a 100 and a 5-fer in the same Test. England went past 600 runs in the 148th over after Carse slammed a four off Siraj. Stokes also completed 7000 runs in the longest format.

After smashing Indian bowlers all over the park Stokes was removed by Ravindra Jadeja for 141 in the 156th over; in his following over Jadeja removed Carse before he slammed 47 runs off 54 balls. England finished their first innings on 669, leading by 311 runs.

Four Indian bowlers conceded 100-plus in this innings, the 25th such instance for them in Tests. This had previously occurred more than a decade ago, on the 2014/15 tour of Australia, in three consecutive Tests: Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney, respectively.

For just the seventh time in Test cricket history, a team has achieved a 300-plus first innings lead after conceding 350-plus while bowling first. Their previous highest lead after conceding 350-plus in the first innings of the Test was 267 against Pakistan in Multan last year (823/7d in response to 556).

Earlier in the match, after England elected to bowl first and reduced India to 358 runs in the first innings, they replied with 544/7 at the end of day three, thanks to brilliant fifties from Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope and Ben Stokes and a historic century from Joe Root, which helped him leapfrog above Australian icon Ricky Ponting to become the second-highest Test run-getter of all time.

Brief Scores: India 1/2 (KL Rahul 1*, Shubman Gill 0; Chris Woakes 2/0) (England: 669 (Joe Root 150, Ben Stokes 141, Ravindra Jadeja 4/143) vs India: 358 (Sai Sudharsan 61, Rishabh Pant 58, Ben Stokes 5/72). (ANI)