R Ashwin acknowledges the fans after picking up a five-wicket-haul on the third day of the fifth and final Test.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Dharamsala: Ravichandran Ashwin and Jonny Bairstow, playing their 100th Test, couldn't have reflected their teams' contrasting fortunes better. The senior off-spinner, after an uncharacteristic show in the first three Tests, gradually came into his own while reserving his best (9/128 for the match) in India's most comprehensive win of the series. Bairstow, who managed breezy 29 and 39 in the two innings, was symptomatic of everything that has gone wrong with England and its brand of cricket.
England's rigidity to stick to their game-plan even as it fell apart against an Indian side, which firmly believed in its traditional style despite an unexpected setback in the first Test, culminated in a 4-1 hammering after the hosts romped to an innings and 64-run win towards the closing stages of second session's play on Saturday's third day of the fifth and final match here at the HPCA Stadium.
Overnight 473/8, India's first innings didn't last long as James Anderson and Shoaib Bashir claimed the remaining two wickets -- Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah -- for the addition of just four runs. Anderson, who was stranded on 699 wickets on the second day after dismissing Shubman Gill, completed the milestone of 700 Test wickets when he had Kuldeep caught behind. While the right-arm bowler extended the record of most wickets for a pacer, he joined Muttiah Muralitharan (800) and Shane Warne (719) as only the third bowler with 700 wickets.
It was a minor relief for the cornered tourists as they gathered around the 42-year-young pacer to congratulate him. Soon after, the young Bashir added Bumrah's scalp to his tally of four the previous evening for his second fifer of the series. Amidst these twin celebrations, it wouldn't have lost on English players' minds that they had an uphill task of scoring 259 runs just to make India bat again and they didn't measure up to the task folding up for 195 in 48.1 overs with Joe Root (84, 128b, 12x4) only delaying the abject capitulation.
If it was Kuldeep who spun a web around England batters in the first innings, Ashwin ran rings around them in the second innings with another fifer (5/77) while operating with the new ball. The off-spinner also overtook Anil Kumble's Indian record of 35 five-wicket hauls in Tests.
England didn't help their cause by playing some reckless shots or what they would like to believe positive cricket. Ashwin wasn't complaining. While he was unable to stop the same batters in Hyderabad or Rajkot, this time he was smarter by the experience. He employed undercutters, carrom ball, classical off-spins to bamboozle the willing batters to leave them teetering at 103/5 by the time lunch was taken. He had four of them, including that of Ben Stokes.
The England skipper's dismissal was a result of an inspired change in bowling just before teams broke for lunch. Bumrah, who led India in the absence of Rohit Sharma who didn't take the field due to stiff back, took out Ravindra Jadeja from the dressing-room end and brought back Ashwin. Stokes had to survive six balls but he could only negotiate four balls before an arm ball had his off-stump rattled after snaking through his defences and fell to Ashwin for the 13th time.
After a probing but wicketless first spell, Bumrah dismissed Tom Hartley and Mark Wood in the same over in the post-lunch session. Bashir showed some resistance before Jadeja picked him for his lone wicket of the innings while Kuldeep, the player of the match, signed off with the scalp of Root who holed out to long-on with little hope revival.