On Monday, 10 September while Chasing a 464-run target for the fifth and final Test, India were reduced to 2 for 3 against England.
The Centuries from Alastair Cook in his final Test innings and captain Joe Root put England in position for a second innings declaration on 423-8, leaving India needing 464 runs to win the fifth Test shortly after Tea on Day 4.
Opener Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara were trapped LBW by James Anderson in the third over of India’s innings.
In the next over, Stuart Broad dismissed skipper Virat Kohli for a golden duck, reducing India to 2/3. After a tremendous English summer where he scored 593 runs, Kohli failed to add any runs in the last innings as he nicked one off Broad to Jonny Bairstow, leaving India in tatters.
Opener KL Rahul along with Ajinkya Rahane steadied India’s ship with a 56-run partnership as the visitors ended the day at 58/3, still needing 406 runs to win.
Playing in his 161st and final Test match, Cook, and his successor as skipper, Root, both struck centuries before being dismissed in consecutive deliveries by debutant Hanuma Vihari (3/37). First, Root holed out and then Cook was caught behind, with the opener walking off to a standing ovation as well as congratulatory handshakes from the Indian team.
The duos’ 259-run third-wicket partnership left England well-placed to extend an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series.
Cook’s landmark moment came in the strangest of circumstances, as what appeared to be a single to take him to 97, became five, when Jasprit Bumrah’s throw to the non-striker’s end went for four overthrows, taking England’s all-time leading run-scorer to 101 from 210 balls.
Cook’s perfect finale, which saw him pass Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakarra as the fifth highest Test run-scorer of all time, finally came to an end when he was caught behind off India debutant Hanuma Vihari for 147 from 286 balls.
Root was out for 125 to the same bowler a ball earlier, having been slightly fortunate to complete his first Test century in more than a year after surviving two dropped chances.
Jonny Bairstow was bowled by Mohammed Shami for 18 and Jos Buttler was caught for a duck off Ravindra Jadeja to leave England 364-6 at Tea.
Ben Stokes made an entertaining 37 before being caught on the boundary off Jadeja, and then Root finally declared when Sam Curran holed out to give Vihari a third wicket.
