It was a tame end to a marathon partnership between KL Rahul and Shubman Gill, India's best batters in the ongoing Test in Manchester on the fifth day, as Ben Stokes got one to stay low in front of the wicket and the opener was trapped LBW. While the partnership was worth 188 runs, it lasted 417 balls, which is the most for any stand for India in Tests in England in the 21st century, when the ball-by-ball statistics were available.
Gill and Rahul broke the record of Sanjay Bangar and Rahul Dravid, who forged a 405-ball partnership, scoring 170 runs during the Headingley Test in 2002. These are the only two partnerships for India in Tests in England to face more than 400 balls. This stand between Gill and Rahul was as vital as India could have asked for, after they were two wickets down with no score on the board, while trailing by 311 runs.
Chris Woakes dismissed Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sai Sudharsan in consecutive balls to leave India reeling at 0/2 before captain Shubman Gill joined KL Rahul in the middle. Both negotiated the opening bursts of England pacers to take India through to the stumps on Day 4 without anymore hiccups. Gill took on the bowlers early on in his innings while Rahul was his usual watchful and solid self.
Both brought up their half-centuries and Rahul got into run-scoring a bit more. On the fifth day as well, nothing seemed to be fazing him until a nipbacker from Stokes came back in sharply, staying low and did Rahul.
For the third wicket, this was the fifth-highest number of balls faced by an Indian pair in a partnership in Test matches anywhere. Sachin Tendulkar and Murali Vijay faced 543 runs in a partnership for third wicket in the 2010 Test in Bengaluru against Australia, which remains the highest. Overall, the record belongs to Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane, who played 672 balls in a partnership during the 2016 Test against New Zealand in Indore.
As for the game, England were able to get Indian captain Shubman Gill's wicket soon enough before lunch on Day 5 but the two all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar kept the hosts' bowlers at bay to string in another dogged partnership to save the Test match.
