The final day of the first Investec Test Match between England and India ended in a seemlingly inevitable draw, but it wasn’t without the odd scare for the tourists with Alastair Cook amongst the wickets.
Resuming 15 minutes late due to some passing showers, the conditions suited bowling and the home side soon used them fully.
Beginning the day on 167-3, India had only added one run to their score before they lost Virat Kohli. With a plan to bowl straight to the right-hander paying dividends, Kohli was on his way for eight, trapped LBW by Stuart Broad.
From then on, the Nottinghamshire seamer had his tail up and he soon bagged his second of the morning. After finding a bit of movement from the pitch Broad caught the outside edge of Ajinkya Rahane, who had looked impressive for his 24, with Matt Prior completing the formalities.
The tourists were soon in further trouble as they lost Mahendra Singh Dhoni to find themselves six down and just 145 ahead. Liam Plunkett, on his first ball of his spell, nipped one back into the Indian captain, clattering his stumps in the process.
There were plays and misses aplenty over the next half an hour but Ravindra Jadeja and Stuart Binny held strong. The pair ensured no further wickets were lost before lunch and stretched the lead to 187 in the process, the interval score at 230-6.
England came back out after lunch knowing the crucial spell with the new ball was just five overs away.
Jadeja and Binny negotiated the time before the new ball and the first few overs of it with relative ease but it was only a matter of time before James Anderson got in amongst the action.
Jadeja was the man to fall, Anderson finally finding the edge through to Prior. India held a lead of and just 210 and with 55 overs left in the day, three quick wickets would have left the door open for a final day chase.
However, the partnership of Binny and Bhuvneshwar Kumar proved a match saving one as they put on 91 for the 8th wicket.
Binny reached his maiden Test fifty, going on to 78 before he became Moeen Ali’s third wicket of the innings. However, by that time, the score had moved on to 340-8, a lead of 301 and the overs in remaining dropping quickly.
Tea was taken with the score on 347-8, India’s prerogative seeming to be to keep England in the field for as long as possible.
Kumar reached another milestone after the interval going on to score his second fifty of the match. The batsman, who had not scored a Test fifty until this game, became only the second number nine to score two half centuries in a Test match, after Peter Siddle.
He went on to finish unbeaten on 68* but had lost another partner before India declared on 391-9. Ishant Sharma was the man to fall to the unlikeliest of culprits, Alastair Cook. The captain brought himself, and Gary Ballance, on towards the end of play and the opening batsman managed to strangle Sharma down the leg side to pick up his first Test wicket, the players shaking hands soon after.