By Shrey Siddharth
India unbelievably ended the pink ball test in a matter of less than 2 days. When it seemed that England had a possibility to bounce back in the game, the Indian spinners brought in a prolific performance to ensure an emphatic victory. Here are some of the highlights from today’s play:-
Joe Root’s fairytale spell:-
England skipper Joe Root produced his best bowling performance in test cricket as he bowled as a seasoned subcontinent off spinner. He dismissed Pant off his very first ball. He went on to pick 4 more lower order batsmen and finished with the magical figures of 5-8. Leach picked up 4 wickets including well set Rohit for 66. With the help of Root’s fine spell, India who looked comfortable at 99-3 underwent a collapse, losing 7 wickets for just 46 runs. India were all out for 145.
The Ax n Ash show:-
Axar Patel with a peach of a delivery dismissed Crawley clean bowled for duck off the very first ball in the innings, repeating what Ashwin did in the first test. Axar came close to achieving a hattrick but the LBW decision was overturned as the ball missed the stumps. But he eventually got Bairstow next ball clean bowled through his defence. He was getting wickets with the arm ball that went straight, deceiving the batsman with pace. Axar went on to dismiss 4 more batsmen including prize scalp of Root for 19 and ended with 11 wickets in his 2nd test. Ashwin joined the party as he got Ben Stokes yet again and achieved his milestone 400th wicket after dismissing Archer. Sundar got the wicket of Anderson in his first over and England crumbled down for a mere 81 runs, their lowest total against India.
With some entertaining strokeplay from Rohit and Gill, India chased down 49 runs and won the test match by 10 wickets in less than 2 days. With that Virat Kohli went passed MS Dhoni to become the most successful Indian captain in India with 22 wins under his belt. Axar Patel was awarded the man of the match for his 11-80 in the match and got a champion’s reception from his home crowd. India took an unassailable lead of 2-1 in the series and a step closer to the World Test Championship.
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