Category: Cricket

• Gambhir engages in angry exchange with groundman

• Fortis tells Gambhir: ‘You can’t tell us what to do’

The spicy spats that have increasingly been a feature of the action in the England-India Tests so far this summer spilled on to the training pitch on Tuesday when the tourists’ head coach, Gautam Gambhir, had a row with Surrey’s head groundsman as his team prepared for the latest clash at the Oval on Thursday.

Ben Stokes’ squad were enjoying a break, but with the series still to be decided in the final Test and India 2-1 down after their fightback at Old Trafford the visitors’ work in the nets was far from straightforward as tensions surfaced in angry exchanges between the pair at the centre of the dispute.

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Ben Stokes and his team got it wrong on graceless end to final day that showed their vulnerability and India’s unity

India spent a day with Manchester United’s squad before the fourth Test, only to then pull off the kind of collective defensive effort rarely seen at the other Old Trafford in recent seasons. But they were not alone in veering away from their pre‑match preparations.

Gilbert Enoka, the All Blacks adviser who made famous their “no dickheads” policy, did some work with England on the training days, only for them to act briefly like … well, let’s just say their adoption of something similar remains a work in progress.

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• Fourth Test, day three: India 358; England 544-7

• Root races up to second in all-time Test runs list

Friday in Manchester belonged to Joe Root as 20,000 people inside Old Trafford watched a master at work. Inevitable is a dangerous word in a fickle sport like cricket and yet the events that transpired felt as close to this as is possible: the likeliest of outcomes once Root gambolled out to the middle first thing under an azure blue sky.

The first expectation was that England, trailing India by 133 runs on 225 for two, would take control of this fourth Test and, sitting 2-1 up, the series as a whole. Ben Stokes, Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley had inflicted such damage on day two that it was going to take something remarkable from the tourists to turn their fortunes around.

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• Fourth Test, day one: India 264-4

• Wicketkeeper’s participation at Old Trafford in doubt

After the row about time-wasting at Lord’s came an unscheduled 10-minute delay on the opening day in Manchester, but this time no one was grumbling. Rishabh Pant was being driven off on a golf buggy nursing a suspected broken foot, the agony on his face as clear as the egg that had swollen up within seconds.

This was a very Pant way to get injured, India’s zany wicketkeeper having attempted a reverse sweep off Chris Woakes only to bottom-edge the ball on to his right boot. England burned a review for the lbw but it was as good as a wicket, Pant retiring on 37 and his further participation in this pivotal fourth Test left very much in doubt.

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