England Need 399 To Win Second India Test

Spinners Tom Hartley and Rehan Ahmed helped England bowl out India for 255, with the tourists needing a record 399 to win the second Test after Shubman Gill's century on Sunday.

Gill hit 104, but India lost regular wickets after pace bowler James Anderson removed the openers in the morning and the hosts' innings ended in the third session in Visakhapatnam.

Hartley took four wickets with his left-arm spin before Ahmed finally got a stubborn Ravichandran Ashwin out for 29 to wrap up the innings with his third strike.

The highest fourth-innings target successfully chased against India was England's 378 at Edgbaston in 2022, and the biggest in India was when the hosts got 387 against England in 2008.

Gill hit his third Test ton and first in his 12 innings since March 2023, to pull India out from 122-4 with two key stands including 89 runs with Axar Patel.

Gill reached the hundred with a single off debutant spinner Shoaib Bashir and raised his bat to a cheering Sunday crowd.

He soon departed, however, when Bashir got him caught behind, a dismissal that was turned down by the umpire but replays showed the ball grazed the batsman's glove.

Gill had two lucky escapes on four, both close lbw calls and one successfully reviewed, but then batted fluently with his flicks and drives until his exit.

England kept chipping away, as Hartley sent back Axar lbw for 45 to leave India six down by tea.

Earlier, in the first session, Shreyas Iyer made 29 and was out after a moment of magic by skipper Ben Stokes.

Iyer attempted a big hit off Hartley but Stokes sprinted back from mid-off and dived at full stretch to pull off a screamer of a catch.

Anderson, in an excellent spell of fast bowling in the morning, rattled Rohit Sharma's stumps with a superb delivery that pitched and moved away from the right-hander.

The old warhorse then got the left-handed Yashasvi Jaiswal caught at first slip, for his 695th Test wicket._Reuters