All-round India produced a stellar performance to storm into the maiden World Test Championship (WTC) final as they steamrolled England by an innings and 25 runs to win the series finale on Day 3 in Ahmedabad. Virat Kohli's men turned the tables on England as they fought back from the defeat in the first Test to win the four-match series 3-1 against Joe Root's men.
Axar Patel once again proved to be the wrecker-in-chief as he bagged his fourth 5-wicket haul while his spin partner Ashwin also grabbed his 30th five-wicket haul to help India bowl England out for 135 in their second innings after the hosts took a 160-run lead on Day 3. As many as 13 wickets fell on Day 3 as the visitors faltered despite getting the best conditions to bat at the Narendra Modi Stadium against India.
England were off to a very poor start as R Ashwin struck in his first over to get rid of Zak Crawley and Jonny Bairstow on successive deliveries. Crawley started the procession as a thick edge carried comfortably to the first slip. Bairstow fell to an innocuous delivery spinning in.
Dom Sibley was the next England batsmen to fall when Axar removed him for 3 while Ollie Pope was outdone by a brilliant Rishabh Pant stumping. England skipper Joe Root looked to rescue the visitors with a fighting 30 but misjudged the length of an Ashwin ball.
Daniel Lawrence then combined with Ben Foakes to delay India's victory as the English duo added 44 runs for the eighth wicket before Ajinkya Rahane took a fine catch-in slip to remove the England wicket-keeper. Lawrence hit his second Test half-century to reduced England's deficit to under 30 but did not get any support from the other end. Axar, meanwhile, continued to spin a web and England continued to play it into his hands.
Earlier, Washington Sundar was left stranded agonisingly stranded on 96 when India lost their last three wickets in five deliveries to be all out for 365, having taken a handy first-innings lead of 160 runs.
Sundar's 113-run partnership with Rishabh Pant had tilted the game in India's favour on Friday and the all-rounder forged another century-plus stand with Axar Patel to put India in charge before Patel was run out for 43. Patel's departure triggered a collapse as Ben Stokes trapped Ishant LBW with a stunner, and then three balls later, cleaned up Siraj to end India's innings.
Earlier, England endured another disappointing batting performance as they were bundled out for 205 after winning the toss and opting to bat first on Day 1. Joe Root's men were again undone by Axar Patel (4-68) and R Ashwin (3/47) even as the pitch didn't offer as much turn as the one used for the two-day third Test at the Narendra Modi Stadium last week.
After the much-criticised chatter over the pitch in the Pink-ball Test, India proved once again that it was not just the wicket that led to England's demise in the last 3 Tests but the quality of the home team batsmen and their spinners. It was fascinating to see Axar Patel step up in the absence of Ravindra Jadeja as he hunted in pairs with R Ashwin with the duo picking up 59 wickets between them.
Source: India Today