Late wickets dent England's second test chances

England bowled India out for 204 before going on to be 87-2 at the close of play to reduce hopes of an unlikely draw.

Alistair Cook was trapped lbw by Ravi Jadeja on the last ball of the day as England batted out two sessions with the sole intention of surviving the day. 

Cook during his 188 ball bat-athon.

India began the day 98-3, and quickly moved to 117-3 before Stuart Broad (4-33) - nursing a damaged tendon in his foot, took the wickets of Rahane and Ashwin to give the tourists an opening that Adil Rashid (4-82) took full advantage of.

The outstanding Virat Kohli (81) again showed how easy it was to bat on this surface, before Rashid had him caught by a Ben Stokes superman-esque dive at slip.

By the time Moeen Ali had Mohammad Shami stumped, the last wicket partnership had added 42 and taken the hosts lead to over 400. 

The tourists began their second innings with one target, survive a minimum of 150 overs on a day four and five pitch to save the test. It has almost been done before, South Africa batted 143.1 overs but ultimately lost the test to India last year. 

With the ease that England's bowlers dismissed the Indian batsmen, it seemed like taking the match to a fifth day would be an achievement in itself but some solid defensive batting from both Cook and Hameed saw them face the longest fourth innings opening partnership in tests in India - 50.2 overs. 

Hameed was trapped LBW by Ravi Ashwin by an unplayable delivery and it seemed Joe Root and his captain would take their team to the close only one wicket down. 

But the loss of Cook has made any chance of saving the test very remote as all pressure hangs on the head of England's fragile middle-order to put together partnerships and take time out of the game. They have to stand up and be counted or all chance at all will be lost.