One of the many enduring qualities about Test cricket and its five-day canvas is a team’s ability to stage a comeback. The third day in Ranchi now sits among the countless examples, India not so much turning the tide as utterly parting the waves with first a characterful lower-order rally and then an intoxicating display of spin bowling.
Ben Stokes and his England players had stepped off the team bus in a position of strength, their hosts 134 runs behind with just three first-innings wickets in hand. But by the close the tourists were heading back to their hotel in a state of total deflation, India already 40 runs into a meagre target of 192 and no wickets in the end column.
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