BIRMINGHAM, England — India was powering toward a massive series-tying victory over England in the second test at Edgbaston after a record-setting Day 4 performance by Shubman Gill on Saturday.
Gill, in his first series as India captain, became the first player to score a double hundred and a 150 in the same test by making 161 in his team's 427-6 declared in the second innings. That followed his 269 in the first-innings 587. His personal match total of 430 runs was behind just former England opener Graham Gooch (456 against India in 1990) in the all-time records book.
It handed the English a target of 608 — making it by some way a world-record chase — and they slumped to 72-3 by stumps. Zak Crawley (0), Ben Duckett (25) and key batter Joe Root (6) were dismissed.
England required 536 more runs to win. Even for a group as aggressive and ambitious as this ‘Bazball' crop of players, a draw was surely the best they could hope for — and even that was highly improbable.
India will be favored to make it 1-1 in the series and Gill is leading the charge, even if his declaration might be regarded as conservative. England fans were certainly displeased with the India skipper making his team bat on until the drinks break in the last session, as they chanted, ''Boring, boring India.''
What can't be denied was Gill's excellence with the bat as the Indians racked up more runs — 1,014 — than they've ever scored in a test match.
He hit 13 fours and eight sixes in his 162-ball knock that was relatively sedate early on — especially compared to Rishabh Pant at the other end either side of lunch as the wicketkeeper made an incident-filled, bat-tossing 65 — before he opened his shoulders as he headed to the 150 mark.
It was a chanceless innings before Gill top-edged a return catch to off-spinner Shoaib Bashir. Such was the quality of Gill's display that Bashir and England captain Ben Stokes shook his hand as he walked off the field.
