R. Ashwin celebrates after taking the wicket of England batsman Zak Crawley on the third day of the final Test match at HPCA Ground in Dharamshala on March 9, 2024.
| Photo Credit: R.V. Moorthy
The predictable happened swiftly. Under two sessions on the third day of the fifth Test here, India completed the demolition job of the surprisingly-willing Englishmen for a 4-1 series triumph.
After an embarrassing loss in the first Test, despite taking a 190-run lead, India turned the script around to win the next four. But none of India’s triumphs was as dominating as the one on Saturday, the margin being an innings and 64 runs.
For the record, India resumed its first innings and folded at 477 after losing overnight not outs, Man-of-the-Match Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah for the additional of four runs.
INFOGRAPHIC | R. Ashwin’s journey to 100 Tests, 500 wickets
Trailing by 259 runs, England was never in the hunt to save an innings loss. It lost five wickets before lunch and the rest in the second session to be cleaned up for just 195.
On a day when 41-year-old James Anderson, in his 187th Test, became the first fast bowler to take 700 Test wickets, R. Ashwin picked up five wickets to tally nine for 128 in his 100th Test.
Inexplicable was England’s rush to defeat. Beginning its second innings in the seventh session of a Test, the haste of the visiting batters to play the big shots was baffling. Hit firmly between the ears by the Indian spinners in the first innings, England showed that it had not learnt any lesson. The false bravado only hastened the end and left England in very poor light in the shortest of the five Tests.
When England batted again, Ashwin started from where he left off after taking the last four first-innings wickets. He sent back the top three batters before lunch as England reeled at 103 for five.
Ashwin bowled Ben Duckett, Ben Stokes and Ben Foakes by foxing each one differently. Duckett stepped out, got himself ‘yorked’ as the ball turned just enough to beat his heave and crashed into the off-stump.
Following a change of ends, Ashwin dismissed Stokes. Guilty of playing from the crease, falling to Bumrah and the turning ball in the series, he played forward defensively but was beaten and bowled. After lunch, Foakes paid the price for his attempted slog-sweep and gave the off-spinner a 36th five-wicket haul.
Jonny Bairstow, also playing his 100th Test, smashed three sixes and two of his three boundaries off Ashwin before being dismissed by Kuldeep.
Joe Root stood amid the ruins to post his 61st Test half-century during the ninth-wicket stand with Shoaib Bashir. He displayed the approach England needed to stay alive to fight another day. He was last out for 84, holing out to Bumrah off Kuldeep, the man who started the procession of England’s wickets in the first innings.
Scoreboard
England 1st Innings: 218 all out
India 1st Innings: 477 all out
England 2nd Innings: Zak Crawley c Sarfaraz Khan b Ashwin 0 Ben Duckett b Ashwin 2 Ollie Pope c Yashasvi Jaiswal b Ashwin 19 Joe Root c Bumrah b Kuldeep Yadav 84 Jonny Bairstow lbw b Kuldeep Yadav 39 Ben Stokes b Ashwin 2 Ben Foakes b Ashwin 8 Tom Hartley lbw b Bumrah 20 Mark Wood lbw b Bumrah 0 Shoaib Bashir b Jadeja 13 James Anderson not out 0 Extras: (B-6, LB-1, NB-1) 8
Total: (All out in 48.1 overs) 195
Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-21, 3-36, 4-92, 5-103, 6-113, 7-141, 8-141, 9-189, 10-195
India bowling: Jasprit Bumrah 10-2-38-2, Ravichandran Ashwin 14-0-77-5, Ravindra Jadeja 9-1-25-1, Kuldeep Yadav 14.1-0-40-2, Mohammed Siraj 1-0-8-0.
