Ahmedabad: Washington Sundar showed composure beyond his years but missed out on a maiden Test hundred by 4 runs in India's commendable first innings score of 365 against England on day three of the fourth and final Test here on Saturday.
The 21-year-old left-hander's 96 off 174 balls was as important as Rishabh Pant's second day hundred but a sudden tail-end collapse saw him stranded at the non-striker's end.
India lost their last three wickets in a space of five balls with Ben Stokes (27.4-6-89-4) cleaning the tail without much fuss.
Read:Team management fine with Pant's approach as long as he gets the job done: Rohit Sharma
At lunch on the third day, England were 6 for no loss aiming to wipe off a massive 160-run first innings lead.
The young left-hander's innings was in complete contrast to his former India U-19 teammate Rishabh Pant, who had blasted his way during the final 50 runs of his innings.
Washington and Axar Patel (43 off 97 balls) added an invaluable 106 runs for the eighth wicket, which has probably thrown England out of the contest.
The best part about the stand was they never looked like blasting the bowlers but got their runs at a fair clip adding 71 runs to the overnight score in 20.4 overs.
Axar, for good measure, hit a straight six off Jack Leach (27-5-89-2), who clearly bowled to a negative field as there were way too many in the deep for any bowler's comfort.