El Fabiolo continued his relentless march towards next month’s Queen Mother Champion Chase with a dominant display in the Ladbrokes Dublin Chase at Leopardstown.

Winner of the Irish Arkle at this meeting last year before following up in the Arkle at Cheltenham, the seven-year-old had stretched his unbeaten record over fences to six when making a successful start to the current campaign in the Hilly Way at Cork.

With the weather denying him an intended trip to Britain for the Clarence House Chase at Ascot last month, El Fabiolo was rerouted to the Dublin Racing Festival for his final outing before his return to the Cotswolds and ultimately got the job done without too much fuss.

Having tracked his stablemate and last year’s winner Gentleman De Mee for most of the two-mile-one-furlong journey, El Fabiolo (4-11 favourite) took over with a big leap two fences from home and was in in full command thereafter, only having to be pushed out by Paul Townend to score by eight and a half lengths from another Willie Mullins-trained runner in Dinoblue.

Both Coral and Paddy Power make El Fabiolo the 4-9 market leader to provide Mullins with a third successive victory in the Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival following the back-to-back wins of the currently sidelined Energumene.

Ballyburn further enhanced his burgeoning reputation with an emphatic victory in the Tattersalls Ireland 50th Derby Sale Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown.

A dual bumper winner but beaten by Firefox on his hurdling debut at Fairyhouse, the Willie Mullins-trained six-year-old put that right with a 25-length demolition job at Leopardstown over Christmas.

The son of Flemensfirth was the 10-11 favourite to successfully step up to Grade One level at the Dublin Racing Festival, and the drop in distance from two-and-a-half to two miles proved to be no problem whatsoever.

Paul Townend positioned Ballyburn close to the pace from flag-fall and having travelled well into the home straight, he readily kicked clear as he raced by the omitted final flight and passed the post with seven lengths in hand over Slade Steel.

Mullins said: “It was a great performance, I’m absolutely delighted. He met hurdle after hurdle right and was in control the whole way. Paul was very happy with how he did things.

“He did everything right over the minimum trip, which is good.

“He has a very low head carriage which is usually a good sign in a horse, I like it, but it’s not nice for the jockeys at times.”

Ballyburn heads ante-post lists for both the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and the Baring Bingham Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, with Mullins in no rush to commit to either race at this stage.

He added: “I’m going to talk about today and leave it at that.”

Substitute Nazariy Rusyn denied Middlesbrough derby-day victory as Sunderland hit back late to snatch a point at the Riverside Stadium.

Boro looked to be heading for a Sky Bet Championship double over their neighbours courtesy of Marcus Forss’ 61st-minute strike until the Ukrainian striker sent a dipping 83rd-minute shot past Tom Glover at his near post to snatch a 1-1 draw which leaves the Black Cats just a point shy of the play-off places.

The Teessiders, who have a game in hand, remain three points worse off after allowing two to slip from their grasp on a day when Finn Azaz and Abdoullah Ba passed up glorious first-half chances for their respective sides.

Azaz might have put Boro ahead with nine minutes gone after Sam Greenwood had raced clear of defender Dan Ballard on to Lukas Engel’s long ball and forced a block from keeper Anthony Patterson, but he skied over from the rebound with the goal yawning.

Boro keeper Glover saved from Jack Clarke and Trai Hume with the pace and trickery of Clarke and Ba keeping the Boro defence on its toes and the interplay between Jonny Howson, Hayden Hackney and Greenwood similarly occupying their opposite numbers.

Hackney dragged a 29th-minute attempt after robbing Jobe Bellingham and Ba warmed Glover’s hands with a rising drive two minutes later before firing wastefully into the side netting when he might have had better options in the middle.

Sunderland should have been ahead five minutes before the break when Bellingham and Clarke mesmerised the home defence to seemingly present Ba with a tap-in at the far post, but Rav van den Berg somehow got across to block his effort on the line.

Luke Ayling was denied by Hume after linking promisingly with Hackney and Forss down the right, and the Boro full-back curled another effort wide with the Teessiders dominating immediately after the restart.

Patterson was fortunate to escape unpunished after dallying on a back-pass as Greenwood and Forss closed him down, but his luck ran out with 61 minutes gone.

Dan Barlaser played a free-kick short to Hackney, who laid it off to Greenwood and his scuffed shot was controlled by Forss before he smashed the ball past the helpless keeper.

Greenwood could have made it 2-0, but steered his shot across the face of goal with just Patterson to beat, and his side was made to pay when Rusyn squeezed his shot past Glover to level.

George Ford has called on England to build on the attacking endeavour shown against Italy when their Guinness Six Nations continues against Wales at Twickenham.

Although outscored 3-2 on the try count, England honoured their pre-match pledge to play with greater freedom after releasing the handbrake imposed by the kick-focussed tactics used during the first year of Steve Borthwick’s reign.

Roaming wing Tommy Freeman, scrum-half Alex Mitchell, debutant Ethan Roots and Ford himself were influential in a pleasing pivot away from the conservatism seen at the World Cup.

While England’s ambition dimmed after half-time of the 27-24 victory in Rome, Ford views the opener as a promising start.

“I know the scoreboard says it was very close, but that second half, we were pretty comfortable,” Ford said.

“The main positives for me were how we responded to them scoring tries, how it felt when we were trying to fire shots in attack and then how we controlled the game in the second half.

“Our intent to play and move the ball was good and I’m really pleased about that. It’s always a balance. You always want to make good decisions and do the right thing at the right time.

“At the very front of our minds is the intent to play, the intent to get behind the ball and attack the defence and go and try and break the line and scores tries.

“Since coming into camp two weeks ago, that’s been the biggest mindset shift from us as a team.

“This is the first game and we’ve been trying to implement that. We could have made better decisions a couple of times but playing in it was pretty exciting. We want to build this.

“I want to keep the intent to play, break the line and score tries and probably pick our execution up when we’ve got the ball.

“We understand it’s going to be a tough day – it always is against Wales – but we’re really excited to keep on getting better.

“There has been a mindset shift in defence and attack that is really enjoyable to be a part of.”

For the first time since 2019, England began the Six Nations with a win as the Jamie George era began with five debuts being issued amid a call from the new captain to believe they can win the title.

Front runners Ireland will have a major say in that given their demolition of France in Marseille, but – in the meantime – Ford values a start that produced few mishaps other than lapses in the new defensive system.

“Winning the first game is huge. You always want to start this tournament with a win. It gives you a bit of momentum, confidence,” Ford said.

“You want to win that first game because you go back home to Twickenham against Wales, which is such an exciting game anyway, with a good result so that you can go again.”

Fact To File came home in splendid isolation after his stablemate and only rival Gaelic Warrior departed at the final fence when already well beaten in Ladbrokes Novice Chase at Leopardstown.

An initial field of five was reduced to a Grade One match between two Willie Mullins-trained runners, with the champion trainer withdrawing Grangeclare West and Gordon Elliott taking out Saturday’s Irish Arkle runner-up Found A Fifty together with his stablemate American Mike.

The two-mile-five-furlong contest was predictably a tactical affair, with Paul Townend allowing 4-7 favourite Gaelic Warrior to stride on in front for much of the way while Mark Walsh was content to sit on his tail aboard 6-4 shot Fact To File.

The latter first joined issue early in the back straight before Gaelic Warrior went clear once more, but it was apparent on the approach to three out that Fact To File was going the better of the pair and he soon took over and asserted before the home turn.

The race was already over as a contest when a weary Gaelic Warrior made a bad mistake and unseated his rider at the final obstacle, allowing Fact To File to coast to what would have been an empathic victory in any case.

Paddy Power make Fact To File their 2-1 favourite from 4-1 for the Turners Novices’ Chase at next month’s Cheltenham Festival, while he is 3-1 with Coral for the longer Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase.

James Anderson was in bullish form as England faced down a record chase of 399 in Visakhapatnam, claiming India were struck by an attack of nerves.

From an overnight score of 67 for one the tourists will be attempting not only the biggest ever pursuit by an England side but the highest ever in Indian conditions. Yet Anderson revealed their irrepressible head coach Brendon McCullum had already prepared them to take on 600.

England have been chasing the second Test ever since losing the toss on the first morning, but they are a side who truly come alive when the result is on the line and have won eight of their last 10 batting last.

When they hunted down 378 against the same opponents at Edgbaston in the summer of 2022 – the biggest ever fourth-innings pursuit by an England side – they did so with ease as unbeaten centuries from Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root delivered a thumping seven-wicket win.

And Anderson feels India’s dominant position on the scorecard masks a vulnerability, pointing to a second-innings collapse that saw them lose six for 44 to finish 255 and give England a glimmer of hope.

“I think the nerves were there to see in the way they batted. I think they didn’t know how many was enough,” said the 41-year-old.

“The chat last night from the coach was that if they get 600, we were going to go for it, but they were quite cautious even when they had a big lead.

“I don’t know if ‘intimidating’ is the right word but we’re putting different thoughts in opposition’s minds and captain’s minds. It definitely felt like they were unsure what a good score would be against us. There’s been moments throughout the last two years, particularly in the last 12 months, that makes us think we’re doing something well because the way teams have reacted.

“We’ve got so much quality in our dressing room and there are guys in there who can maybe get 150 for us and win us the game.”

Root has more big scores than anyone else in the away dressing room, but he may not be operating at 100 per cent due after an injury scare. He took a blow to the finger in Sunday’s warm-up and another while fielding at slip in the morning session, forcing him off the field for treatment.

It may not be wise for Root to do so himself, but the rest of his team-mates will be crossing their fingers it is nothing serious.

“His finger isn’t great. Hopefully he’ll turn up at the ground and be OK to hold a bat,” said Anderson.

“He’s been looking after it, making sure he did everything he could to help us out in the second innings. We’ll need everyone, I think.”

England’s eagerness to go on the attack was personified by the emergence of Rehan Ahmed at number three, volunteering his own promotion up the order in the ‘nighthawk’ role first devised by Stuart Broad.

He could have been out twice in the final over of the day but instead picked up two risky boundaries.

“He got announced as ‘nightwatchman’ over the Tannoy but he certainly wasn’t that,” Anderson said with a smile.

“I know there are 180 overs left in the game, but we will try to do it in 60 or 70. That’s the way we play, and we saw that tonight with Rehan going out and playing his shots. We have set our stall out.”

The Chicago Bulls will be without Zach LaVine for the rest of the campaign.

LaVine, who has had a stop-start season, will undergo surgery on a foot issue next week.

Bulls coach Billy Donovan confirmed on Saturday that LaVine, who has not played since mid-January due to an ankle sprain, had elected to go under the knife and will miss between four and six months.

"He made a decision he felt was best for his health," Donovan said.

"I really feel like he did everything he could to try to get himself back to playing.

"The discomfort in his foot was at a place where I think he didn't feel like he had any chance to be himself. That was the really frustrating part of it.

"He's kind of been in and out, but certainly you'd like to have a player of his calibre available.

"Now with the news coming out we'll have to play without him. I've always said when you lose really good players, it impacts your team."

Rio Dyer believes that Wales will need to back themselves and build on a stunning second-half display against Scotland when they tackle England at Twickenham next Saturday.

Although Wales lost a pulsating Guinness Six Nations clash 27-26 to the Scots, it could not overshadow the vintage rugby they conjured from nowhere.

Trailing by 27 points with almost half the game left, Wales were heading towards record Six Nations defeat territory at a frightening speed.

But four tries in 20 minutes from Dyer, James Botham, Aaron Wainwright and Alex Mann, plus three Ioan Lloyd conversions, left Scotland hanging on.

“We were in our shell during that first-half, ” Wales wing Dyer said.

“We were hitting it up and getting put on the back foot, so the only thing we could do then was to kick it.

“Gats (Wales head coach Warren Gatland) said at half-time: ‘let’s actually play, let’s go out there, we have got nothing to lose now. We are under the pump, so let’s go out and show what we can actually do’.

“He was softly spoken, he wasn’t shouting at people, he just brought the boys in and said we can’t be putting out performances like that in the first-half in the first game of the Six Nations.

“I think it was amazing to see how the boys stuck together.

“We are a young squad who have only been in camp for two weeks. It is just about getting used to each other, but throughout that second-half we showed what we could do.”

More of the same is likely to be required against England, whose recent Twickenham record in the fixture is an imposing one.

Wales have lost their last seven Tests in south-west London since claiming a 2015 World Cup pool win, with just two Six Nations victories – in 2008 and 2012 – since the competition expanded 24 years ago.

Dyer added: “I think that kind of second-half should give the boys the confidence to say we can back ourselves a little bit more than we did in the first-half.

“Personally, I just think it is that confidence to play. We need to back ourselves, and that was the message at half-time before we went back out there.

“Everyone is here for a reason, everyone has got things they can do, and let’s not go into our shells.

“It is about pushing ourselves as a young squad to build the momentum on to next week.”

Changes look likely to the Wales line-up against England, headlined by a fit-again George North’s anticipated return in midfield.

And given the considerable impact made by a number of his substitutes, Gatland could easily hand starts to players like scrum-half Tomos Williams, hooker Elliot Dee and prop Keiron Assiratti.

Gatland said: “We will go there (Twickenham) with a lot of confidence we can build on that second-half and belief. That is the biggest thing, really.

“I think we can go there and say we know what we want to do.”

Ashley Young admits the responsibility is on Everton’s players to positively effect the rest of their season as the fate of their points deduction and another pending charge for a financial breach is out of their hands.

The club’s appeal against the 10-point sanction for an infringement of Premier League profit and sustainability rules was held this week but an outcome is not expected for another fortnight.

Without the penalty Sean Dyche’s side would be nine points clear of the relegation zone and while the last-gasp 2-2 draw with Tottenham briefly lifted them out of the bottom three, they will remain there for another week after Luton’s draw at Newcastle dropped them back down.

Young admits being below the line does have an impact on the players but a determined performance against Spurs was a confidence booster after Jarrad Branthwaite’s first goal of the season in the fourth minute of added time snatched a deserved point.

“I think everything is in the back of our minds but we have got a job in hand to do and that was to try and win the game,” said Young.

“Everything is out of our hands apart from what we go and do on the pitch and that is to win games. That is all we can do.

“We were losing but it showed the team spirit that we have got. Everyone is pulling in the right direction and everyone is on board with the manager’s ideas and his vision for the club.

“We want to make it tough for every team to come here. We have got to worry about what we do and not other teams and that is to get wins on the board.”

Young was playing only his second game after a six-week injury lay-off but was one of the better performers in a first half in which Jack Harrison got the slightest of final touches to deny team-mate Dominic Calvert-Lewin his first goal in 17 matches, sandwiched between two efforts from former Toffees favourite Richarlison.

The paucity of resources in midfield meant Young was freed from the right-back role he has operated in this season to play further forward and he enjoyed it.

He will be 39 this summer, when his contract expires, but has no plans to quit.

“I prefer it, actually, if you can tell the manager that. I have played there pretty much all my career,” he said of his midfield role.

“I know the job and it is more exciting than playing as a defender.

“I am just thinking about what games are coming up. It is down to the club when they want to sit down and talk to me about it. For me, it is just playing games and getting to the next game.”

Asked whether he wanted to continue playing next season, he added: “Yeah, of course I do.”

Barry Connell remains at a loss to explain Marine Nationale’s disappointing performance in the Irish Arkle at Leopardstown on Saturday.

A brilliant winner of last season’s Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, the seven-year-old made a foot-perfect start to his career over fences at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting and was odds-on to add a third Grade One to his CV back at the Foxrock circuit.

However, while Marine Nationale briefly threatened to challenge rounding the home turn, he found little when push came to shove and was ultimately well beaten in fifth place.

Connell feels underfoot conditions may not have been ideal for his stable star, but will conduct further tests this week to try to discover if something else was amiss.

He said: “He seems fine this morning, but we’ll have to run a lot of further tests on him this week, so we won’t know until later in the week what the full clinical picture of him is.

“He’s sound anyway and seems to come out of the race OK, so we’re still a little bit in the dark.

“I’d say the ground definitely was harder going than it was at Christmas. They had no fresh ground, so it was probably tacky, holding ground, which wouldn’t be ideal.

“We just don’t know (what happened), but the horse had an off day and it won’t be until later in the week when we’ve finalised our checks on him.”

While Marine Nationale’s odds for the Arkle at Cheltenham next month obviously drifted in the aftermath of his defeat, he remains at the head of ante-post lists and Connell is hopeful he can show his true colours on his return to the Cotswolds.

He added: “Our intention is to just put a line through and head on to Cheltenham.

“He obviously showed a lot of speed in the Supreme last year, beating the winner from yesterday (Il Etait Temps) and Facile Vega (finished third on Saturday).

“Hopefully we’ll get spring ground at Cheltenham and he’s proven his liking for the track there.

“All these horses can get beat at some stage and unfortunately that was the case yesterday. We’ll just see if anything else emerges.”

Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers is less than impressed after Saturday's win over the Dallas Mavericks meant he is set to coach in the All-Star game.

Rivers picked up his first win as Bucks coach as Giannis' Antetokounmpo's 48 points inspired Milwaukee to a 129-117 comeback victory, while Damian Lillard had 30 points on 10-of-11 shooting.

Yet that victory means the Bucks' coach is now obligated to take charge of the Eastern Conference team in the All-Star game on February 18.

That is because Joe Mazzulla, the Boston Celtics coach, is ineligible after coaching in the All-Star game last year. Given the Bucks have the second-best record in the East two weeks before the event, the task will fall to Rivers.

But after just three games in charge of his new team, Rivers – who replaced Adrian Griffin last month – was far from impressed with that outcome.

"It's ridiculously bad. It really is," Rivers said.

"Well, Adrian's going to get some money, that's for sure. And a ring. It's one of those quirky things.

"I think there should be a rule somehow that someone else does it, other than me. Maybe I'll send my staff, and I'll go on vacation.

"I'll run that by Adam Silver. Adam's a good man, I think he'll understand."

Luka Doncic finished with 40 points for the Mavericks, who lost a second straight game.

"Looking at what Milwaukee did, they just kept playing and took our best shot there in the first half and then ended the half on a positive with Dame making that three at the buzzer," Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. "We didn't take care of the ball."

England’s reputation as the most fearless chasers in the game will be put to its biggest challenge yet after they were set a record 399 to win an absorbing second Test against India.

Since the ‘Bazball’ era began, Ben Stokes’ side have won eight of their 10 fourth-innings pursuits, including a new English record of 378 against the same opposition at Edgbaston 18 months ago.

Speaking after that match, Stokes said: “There was a bit of me that wanted them to get to 450, just to see what we’d do”. Now, he is one step closer to finding out.

That it is even considered possible after England ended day three on 67 for one speaks volumes for the way this team have raised expectations, not least in Hyderabad last week where they overturned a 190-run first-innings deficit.

But the challenge of finding another 332 runs in Visakhapatnam is even steeper, with a tricky turning pitch bringing the home spinners into play and the dynamic Jasprit Bumrah leading the attack.

England lost Ben Duckett for 28 when he was well caught off bat and pad but they refused to back down, Zak Crawley reaching 29 not out and Rehan Ahmed throwing the bat in a late cameo as the so-called ‘nighthawk’.

India had a chance to bat England even further out of the game but failed to back up Shubman Gill’s century as they were bowled out for 255.

England’s inexperienced bowling attack, featuring three young spinners with three Test caps between them coming into the match, Tom Hartley leading the way with four for 77.

The trio were perfect, with the occasional drag down or full toss creeping in, but their readiness to keep rolling up to try their luck showed plenty of heart. At 211 for four, with Gill on 104, that did not look enough but they clubbed together to take the next six wickets for 44.

India turned up already 171 in front and with all 10 wickets intact, a formidable starting point if ever there was one. But it was England’s old stager James Anderson who had the first say.

At 41 – and with no other seam bowlers in the side – he showed no signs of weariness as he blew away the Indian openers.

More than half of a sold-out Sunday crowd were still queuing outside when he struck with his fourth ball of the morning, a beauty that stood up off the seam and hit the top of Rohit Sharma’s off stump as he looked ruefully over his shoulder.

Yashavi Jaiswal, following up his stunning double century, was next to succumb to Anderson’s unforgiving line and length as he flashed a drive to slip. When Gill was given lbw to Hartley with just four to his name, England seemed to be calling all the shots.

But he took a chance on DRS and seemed more surprised than anyone when replays suggested a thin edge. A few moments later he had another scare, this time saved on umpire’s call as Anderson rapped him front.

Having survived his double scare, the Punjabi added exactly a hundred more runs. In the context of the game, against opponents not easy to intimidate, it was a crucial knock.

When Anderson exited the attack, the control went with him. Gill took the lead past 200 by launching Shoaib Bashir for six and dashed to 50 with successive fours off Ahmed. He shared a stand of 81 with Shreyas Iyer but Stokes’ refusal to give up on a lost cause got England back in the struggle.

Racing 20 metres as the ball sailed over his head he tracked it perfectly, dived at full length and pulled off a magnificent take before celebrating in front of a small pocket of travelling fans.

Ben Foakes produced a smart take of his own to give England a fourth success in the morning session, staying low to snatch Rajat Patidar’s bottom edge. There runs were ticking by too though, 102 of them before lunch and another 97 in the afternoon.

Gill took a six and two fours off one Ahmed over as he took India 300 ahead and brought his third Test hundred up in 132 balls. Bashir finally got him when he gloved a sweep behind, leaving Hartley and Ahmed to share the last four wickets.

Srikar Bharat, Kuldeep Yadav and Bumrah made six between them and Ravichandran Ashwin a frustrating 29 after Crawley put him down on four.

England were left with 14 overs to face, but allowed India an important breakthrough when Ashwin had Duckett well caught by the wicketkeeper off bat and pad.

Ahmed was pushed up the order to save Ollie Pope the ordeal and showed his fearless nature with three risky shots in a row in the final over before stumps.

England’s reputation as the most fearless chasers in the game will be put to its biggest challenge yet after they were set a record 399 to win an absorbing second Test against India.

Since the ‘Bazball’ era began, Ben Stokes’ side have won eight of their 10 fourth-innings pursuits, including a new English record of 378 against the same opposition at Edgbaston 18 months ago.

Speaking after that match, Stokes said: “There was a bit of me that wanted them to get to 450, just to see what we’d do”. Now, he is one step closer to finding out.

That it is even considered possible after England ended day three on 67 for one speaks volumes for the way this team have raised expectations, not least in Hyderabad last week where they overturned a 190-run first-innings deficit.

But the challenge of finding another 332 runs in Visakhapatnam is even steeper, with a tricky turning pitch bringing the home spinners into play and the dynamic Jasprit Bumrah leading the attack.

England lost Ben Duckett for 28 when he was well caught off bat and pad but they refused to back down, Zak Crawley reaching 29 not out and Rehan Ahmed throwing the bat in a late cameo as the so-called ‘nighthawk’.

India had a chance to bat England even further out of the game but failed to back up Shubman Gill’s century as they were bowled out for 255.

England’s inexperienced bowling attack, featuring three young spinners with three Test caps between them coming into the match, Tom Hartley leading the way with four for 77.

The trio were perfect, with the occasional drag down or full toss creeping in, but their readiness to keep rolling up to try their luck showed plenty of heart. At 211 for four, with Gill on 104, that did not look enough but they clubbed together to take the next six wickets for 44.

India turned up already 171 in front and with all 10 wickets intact, a formidable starting point if ever there was one. But it was England’s old stager James Anderson who had the first say.

At 41 – and with no other seam bowlers in the side – he showed no signs of weariness as he blew away the Indian openers.

More than half of a sold-out Sunday crowd were still queuing outside when he struck with his fourth ball of the morning, a beauty that stood up off the seam and hit the top of Rohit Sharma’s off stump as he looked ruefully over his shoulder.

Yashavi Jaiswal, following up his stunning double century, was next to succumb to Anderson’s unforgiving line and length as he flashed a drive to slip. When Gill was given lbw to Hartley with just four to his name, England seemed to be calling all the shots.

But he took a chance on DRS and seemed more surprised than anyone when replays suggested a thin edge. A few moments later he had another scare, this time saved on umpire’s call as Anderson rapped him front.

Having survived his double scare, the Punjabi added exactly a hundred more runs. In the context of the game, against opponents not easy to intimidate, it was a crucial knock.

When Anderson exited the attack, the control went with him. Gill took the lead past 200 by launching Shoaib Bashir for six and dashed to 50 with successive fours off Ahmed. He shared a stand of 81 with Shreyas Iyer but Stokes’ refusal to give up on a lost cause got England back in the struggle.

Racing 20 metres as the ball sailed over his head he tracked it perfectly, dived at full length and pulled off a magnificent take before celebrating in front of a small pocket of travelling fans.

Ben Foakes produced a smart take of his own to give England a fourth success in the morning session, staying low to snatch Rajat Patidar’s bottom edge. There runs were ticking by too though, 102 of them before lunch and another 97 in the afternoon.

Gill took a six and two fours off one Ahmed over as he took India 300 ahead and brought his third Test hundred up in 132 balls. Bashir finally got him when he gloved a sweep behind, leaving Hartley and Ahmed to share the last four wickets.

Srikar Bharat, Kuldeep Yadav and Bumrah made six between them and Ravichandran Ashwin a frustrating 29 after Crawley put him down on four.

England were left with 14 overs to face, but allowed India an important breakthrough when Ashwin had Duckett well caught by the wicketkeeper off bat and pad.

Ahmed was pushed up the order to save Ollie Pope the ordeal and showed his fearless nature with three risky shots in a row in the final over before stumps.