India beat England by 145 runs in their second innings after putting up a lethal bowling display on Day 3. Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin grabbed a fifer and finished the innings with figures of 5/51 in 15.5 overs. On the other hand, Kuldeep Yadav took a four-wicket haul and uprooted the English middle and lower order with his lethal spin bowling.
Ravichandran Ashwin also became the Indian bowler to pick the most five-wicket hauls in Test cricket. Ashwin leveled Anil Kumble’s record of 35 5-fers and reached the mark in 99 matches. Kumble had reached the milestone in 132 Tests. Harbhajan Singh is at third place and has 25 five-wicket hauls in 103 games. Kapil Dev has 23 5-fers in 131 games, while Bhagwath Chandrasekhar has picked 16 five-wicket hauls in 58 Tests.
Ravichandran Ashwin achieves another historic feat
Most 5-fers for India in Tests:
Ravichandran Ashwin: 35 5-fers from 99 Tests Anil Kumble: 35 5-fers from 132 Tests Harbhajan Singh: 25 5-fers from 103 Tests Kapil Dev: 23 5-fers from 131 Tests BS Chandrasekhar: 16 5-fers from 58 Tests
Most 5-fers in testing history:
67 – Muralitharan37 – Shane Warne36 – Sir Richard Hadlee35 – Anil Kumble35 – Ravichandran Ashwin*34 – Rangana Herath
Ravichandran Ashwin did the initial damage for England and removed dangerous man Ben Duckett for 15 runs off 15 balls. Sarfaraz Khan caught Duckett at front short leg. Ollie Pope was caught off the next ball and was dismissed by Ravichandran Ashwin for a golden duck. Joe Root, who scored big in the first innings, could not repeat his performance and came out with 11 runs off 36 balls against Ashwin.
Kuldeep Yadav began his quest for wickets by dismissing England opener Zak Crawley for 60 off 91 balls. The ball was pitched outside the line of stump and hit the middle stump. Crawley was beaten by both spin and rebound and had to return to the locker room. Ben Stokes became Yadav’s second victim when he became overconfident while defending the ball, scoring four runs off thirteen balls. Ravindra Jadeja for getting rid of Jonny Bairstow on the first ball after tea.
Tom Hartley became the third English batsman to fall to Kuldeep Yadav. Hartley tried to attack the left-arm wrist spinner but instead gave a catch to Sarfaraz Khan at long-on. Hartley caught Ollie Robinson off a duck to complete his four-wicket haul.
Ravichandran Ashwin concluded the English innings by picking up the last two English wickets while removing Ben Foakes and James Anderson for 7 and 0 runs respectively. Ultimately, England could only score 145 runs and set India a target of 192 runs to chase in their second innings.
Chasing the target India finished Day 3 at 40/0 from 8 overs and need 152 more runs on Day 4. The Indian team will want to chase the target and also win the five-match series 3-1. However, there is still a lot to play for in the fourth Test match as chasing the target on Day 4 would not be easy for India against the English spinners.