NEW DELHI, Mar 9: Centuries from Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma, followed by five-wicket hauls by Kuldeep Yadav in the England first innings and from Ravichandran Ashwin in the second helped India to defeat England by a massive innings and 64 runs in the 5th and final Test in Dharmasala on Saturday taking the five-match series 4-1.
After bundling out England for 218, India posted 477 and took a lead by 259 runs. England got bundled out for 195 after Ashwin took five wickets. Apart from him, Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav also scalped two wickets each. For England, Joe Root scored 84 runs while Jonny Bairstow scored 39. Earlier, Gill and Rohit 110 and 103 runs respectively for India while Shoaib Bashir registered a five-wicket haul for England. With this win.
Ravichandran Ashwin took a famous five-wicket haul in his 100th Test as India thrived on the impatience of England batters for the emphatic victory in the final chapter of an action-packed five-match contest, handing the visitors their heaviest defeat in the ‘Bazball’ era.
England were bowled out for 195 in less than two sessions with Ashwin running through their reckless batting line-up to end with a match haul of nine wickets. Joe Root was the lone ranger for his team and batted beautifully for his 84 off 128 balls. Having come on the crease two down, Root was the last batter to be dismissed.
England’s second innings moved at a rather frenetic pace as the batters went on the offensive in their bid to survive against the Indian spinners but failed yet again. The game appeared to be going only one way when India took a huge 259-run first innings lead in the morning session by posting 477 all out in response to England’s 218 on day one.
Ahead of the final game of their long tour, Stokes had dismissed theories of the departure lounge syndrome but with the way his batters performed, it seemed they were in a hurry to get back home. The attack at all costs approach clearly did not work for them in India and the debacle has given them plenty to ponder before the start of the English summer.
For India, the series was a remarkable success considering they had the likes of Virat Kohli and Mohammed Shami unavailable throughout. The youngsters, led by Yashasvi Jaiswal, grabbed the opportunities in the seniors’ absence to give the team management more options for the future.
With Rohit Sharma not taking the field due to a stiff back, Bumrah led the side in the middle besides opening the bowling alongside Ashwin.
The writing was on the wall after Ashwin ran through England’s self-destructing top-order to leave them reeling at 103 for five at lunch. England skipper Ben Stokes (2) cut a sorry figure after falling to Ashwin at the stroke of lunch with a straighter one. Not confident of defending against Ashwin and Co., England continued to use the long handle after lunch and failed miserably.
Ben Foakes went for a wild slog sweep off Ashwin only to miss the ball completely, giving India’s premier spinner his 36th five-wicket haul in Tests. Bumrah’s fiery spell in the afternoon got him wickets of Tom Hartley and Mark Wood, putting India on the cusp of a massive win.
In the morning, the visitors took less than 20 minutes to wrap up India’s innings with veteran James Anderson finally getting to the 700-wicket mark. Young off-spinner Shoaib Bashir had Jasprit Bumrah stumped for his second five-wicket haul in his debut series.
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.
(Manas Dasgupta)
