England vs India, 4th Test - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Say what you will about the pitch, the magnitude of this effort cannot be downplayed. India were under a lot of pressure after their bowling effort on days two and three. It won't be unfair to say that their selection calls on this tour have been defensive, going for extra batting depth instead of picking their best bowling attack. But one thing you can't take away from this team is the fight they've shown right through the series. Results haven't gone their way despite being the better team across many metrics. But they've never thrown in the towel, and to bat five sessions for a draw after losing two wickets in the first over, is sensational. The happenings over the last five days have taken quite a toll on both bowling attacks, and with the next Test in just three days, a few changes beckon. For now, it's time to soak in the aftermath of another gripping Test. That's it from us here. This is Sagar Chawla signing off on behalf of Siva, MS Ramakrishnan and Nikhil Jadhav.

Stokes (3/3): (On India delaying the draw) Yeah, I think all the hard work was done by India. They both (Washi and Jadeja) played incredibly well and it got to that point where there was obviously only one result and there was absolutely no chance I was going to risk any of my big fast bowlers through injuries with one more game to go. Dawsy (Dawson) just bowled so many overs this game his body started to get a little bit tired and started to cramp up in the legs so I wasn't risking any of my frontline bowlers for that last half an hour. (Will England field a different bowling attack for the 5th Test?) Yeah, look, I think even before this test match we got into it, obviously there were those conversations around how much effort and energy has gone in, especially from the bowling department. Another quick turnaround before The Oval, so we'll have to use these few days wisely and we'll just have to check up on everyone and see how they're going. We're very lucky at the moment that we've got a battery of fast bowlers who we can call at any point in time, so it'll be assessed over the next couple of days and then we'll make that decision.

Stokes (2/3): (On England's batting coming good) Yeah, I thought Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett's opening partnership was incredibly crucial in the way that we could lay the foundation for the game. That opening partnership, the way that they took the Indian attack on, the rate that they managed to score at, it allowed us to be able to go right with, we're going to try and bat once and then look to hopefully nowl India out. It was a great start yesterday with two wickets in the first over, but it was one of those wickets, if you got in, you felt like you were going to be the one to make a mistake to get out. And yeah, it's been a back and forth series so far. We've been throwing punches in, they've been throwing punches back at us and it's just been really high quality cricket. Two very good teams and I've got to give credit to the way that India came out here and performed under the pressure that they were. (On how tough is it to captain on a wicket like this?) Yeah, it is. It's one of those pitches where you sort of, feel in moments that this is where the game is going to be broken open massively. Obviously getting that KL wicket this morning, very early on, brings us back into it, everyone starts perking up a bit more. But you always knew that, you know, the quality that India have, if they were able to get themselves in, they were going to be hard to dislodge and they proved that. When you're bowling on day five and you've got to move away to different plans, different fields, different ways of trying to make wickets, different ways of making batsmen out there in the middle uncomfortable. And we threw absolutely everything at them and they were able to, you know, live up to the pressure that was of another day five test match.

Ben Stokes | POTM and England captain (1/3): I think when you have a good game as an all-rounder, you sort of assess how that goes by the result at the end of the game. Yeah, obviously I'll give this all back if we were on the right side of the result that we wanted. (On how his body is feeling at the moment) It's been a big five, six weeks. I'll always try and give everything that I possibly can and you know try and.. I don't know.. run through a brick wall... I asked the guys up there to run through a brick wall for the team and I'll always try and do the same to try and lead by example in that sense but yeah bowling, being out in the field all that kind of stuff it is tough work but yeah pretty sore. (On when he picked up the shoulder niggle) Yeah, it's just that workload, a lot of these things, to be honest. Obviously you got through a fair few amount of overs. Yeah, just everything obviously starts creeping up on you. But look, I'll keep trying, keep going and you know. As I always say to all the bowlers, pain is only an emotion. (On not being able to force a win) I think as the game progressed, I think we've seen the wicket sort of become easier and easier to bat on. I think as the game got deeper and deeper, I mean, you look at how difficult it was for the right-handers on that wicket, particularly like this morning, the variable bounce. And then it just didn't seem like there was that inconsistency of bounce to the left-handers. You got to give a heap load of credit for the way that Washington and Jadeja came in and played there and they were obviously under a lot of pressure. So to put that partnership together like they did there, I've got to give them a lot of credit.

Shubman Gill | India captain: Extremely pleased with the batting effort. Past couple of days we were put under tremendous pressure. It's all about taking the wicket out of the equation. Day 5 wicket, something is happening, every ball is kind of an event. Wanted to take it ball by ball and take the game as deep as possible, which is what we spoke about. We thought they (Jadeja and Sundar) batted brilliantly, they were in their 90s, we thought they deserved a century there (about the decision to not shake hands). Every match going till the last session on the last day. So many learnings. Each Test match teaches you something different. It has taught us a lot as a group. Hopefully we can win the next match and draw the series. Honestly, it doesn't matter how many runs you've scored in the past. Every time you walk wearing the whites of the country, there are some jitters. That tells how much I care playing for the country and how much I love this game. Everytime I bat, I want to play my best and I want to enjoy my batting as much as I can. In the first innings, we did post a good total. But a lot of our batters did get set. Important on these wickets that if one or two batters if they go deep, they go big. You can really take the game away from the opposition. Unfortunately for us in the first innings it didn't happen. We were not able to convert those starts into big ones. But pleased with the way we were able to do that in the second innings. Will have to wait and see (about Bumrah) in the Oval Test match. As long as we're winning the match (at the Oval), I don't really care about the toss.

Time for the presentations...

Most POTM awards in Tests for England
13 - Joe Root
12 - Ian Botham
12 - Ben Stokes
10 - Kevin Pietersen
10 - Stuart Broad
Ben Stokes is the first England captain to aggregate 300-plus runs and bag 15-plus wickets in a Test series. The only England player to achieve this double in a Test series in the last 40 years was Andrew Flintoff in Ashes 2005.

This is the first time India had three individual hundreds in the third or fourth innings of a Test match

400-plus team totals after losing first two wickets without a run on board
451/8d - IND vs WI, Chennai, 1983
443/7d - WI vs IND, Kanpur, 1958
425/4 - IND vs ENG, Old Trafford, 2025

Only twice have India batted out more overs in the third innings to save a Test after conceding a first innings lead of 300-plus:
476/4 in 180 overs vs NZ, Napier, 2009
318/4 in 148 overs vs ENG, Lord’s, 1979

No team winning the toss and bowling first has ever won a Test at Old Trafford: three defeats, nine draws

The only previous drawn Test for England in Bazball era was also at this venue (Old Trafford) - the fourth Test of Ashes 2023.

This is the first time that four Indian batters have aggregated 400-plus runs in a Test series (Gill, Rahul, Pant, Jadeja).

Washington Sundar scored India's 11th individual century in these four Tests, the joint-most for them in a series, alongside 11 against West Indies at home in 1978/79.

Most 350+ scores by a team in a Test series
7* - India vs England, 2025 (Away)**
6 - Australia vs England, 1920/21 (Home)
6 - Australia vs England, 1948 (Away)
6 - Australia vs England, 1989 (Away)

Talk about multiple heroes in one Test. This one had some incredible performances with Ben Stokes at the top of the list. A five-for with the ball and a hundred with the bat despite bits being chipped off him. A player whose magic can't be explained by numbers alone. Even on this final day, he threatened to break the match open with his wearing body. The wicket of KL Rahul in his first spell, even before the second new ball, brought an end to an incredible partnership that had denied the hosts for two whole sessions yesterday. But, as it turned out, today wasn't about Stokes. The story was about a lineup under tremendous pressure standing their ground led by captain Shubman Gill. He scored a hundred, Rahul was incredible for his 90, and then Jadeja and Washington put the finishing touches with hundreds of their own. It was England who had enough of it by the end, wanting to call it off but only to be kept on the field till the left-handed duo completed their milestones.

17:42 Local Time, 16:42 GMT, 22:12 IST: Heartbreak at Headingley, heartbreak at Lord's, and yet a performance with so much heart in Manchester. It's a monumental effort that could come to define this team going forward under Shubman Gill. Backed into a corner, buried under a mountain of runs, and asked to bat five sessions to save the game, India have done it. And they've done it without any drama on a final day that promised to test them to the limit. England will wonder what went wrong and why the bowling lacked any bite when Stokes didn't have the ball. The pitch wasn't entirely flat. There was some uneven bounce right through, and some footmarks to work with too. But some missed chances, some ordinary bowling and a huge amount of skill with the bat has kept India alive in the series going into the final Test. They can't win it, but they can certainly draw it. And need there be anything said about the merit of a draw after a day like today.