INDIA HOLD TRAFFORD

Gill leads from the front with a century; Jadeja & Washington follow up with hundreds as visitors draw fourth Test against England in Manchester

- FIROZ MIRZA @Manchester

As the players walked off the field for lunch on Day Five at Old Trafford, India were in a spot of bother. They had just lost their captain and centurion Shubman Gill; the scoreboard read 223/4 with still 88 runs behind the hosts. Not long before, they had already lost the other set batter in KL Rahul, and now, the burden was on Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja to put their heads down and dig the team out of the hole.

Jadeja almost did that at Lord's only to watch Mohammed Siraj losing his wicket in an unfortunate manner a few days ago. And that was not the first time he had endured such a heartbreak in England. Five years ago, at the same venue, he and former captain MS Dhoni fell short in the ODI World Cup semifinal against New Zealand despite reaching close from a position of no hope.

This time, however, he was not going to let it repeat. With Washington for company, he dug deep to frustrate England's bowling attack. Be it their pace spearhead Jofra Archer or their inspiring captain Ben Stokes, no one can breach the duo's defence. They gave up all their aggressive instincts and instead focused on playing the ball on its merit. The defensive approach adopted by the duo meant India scored 55 runs in 21 overs between lunch and drinks at 2.61 runs per over.

Once they negotiated the testing period, the Indian batters broke free a few overs before the tea and targeted Stokes, whose ruthless spell in the morning raised hope of his team's win in the match. Before that over, the third of Stokes' second spell and 11th overall, India were trailing by 13 runs. Washington slammed the England captain's first two balls for a six and a four before Jadeja joined the party by hitting a four to complete his fifty. By the time the tea was called, India had reached 322/4 with Washington and Jadeja unbeaten on 57 and 53 runs, respectively.