IND Vs ENG: India continues to be a dominant force while they play at home. England managed to win just the 1st Test match. But their performances kept getting worse and worse as the series of the five Test matches went on. The Men in Blue won the series by a margin of 4-1.
The home side bounced back well after their close defeat in the first Test match in Hyderabad and they ended up winning the final match of this series as well.
England’s performance was good in patches after the first Test match. The Men in Blue won the 5th and final red ball match by an innings and 64 runs.
Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley were the pick of the bowlers for the touring team of England. However, their batters were disappointing as they kept their BAZBALL approach on, which did not work well for them in this five-match series.
In Dharamshala, the visitors batted first. But even after a good start, England didn’t score big in their 1st innings. Zak Crawley was the highest run scorer in the innings and the others weren’t good enough.
Shubman Gill’s catch was the turning point for India in the 1st innings when the visitors batted. That catch also set the tone for the home side in this match.
Kuldeep Yadav got a five-wicket haul in the 1st innings and Ravichandran Ashwin got four wickets in his 100th Test match. India was in complete control even with the bat on day one.
After the tourists were bundled for just 218 runs, the Men in Blue had a good start and posted 135 runs on the first day.
Yashaswi, the highest run-getter of the series was dismissed for 57 runs on the first day itself. On day 2, Gill and Rohit continued to pounce England.
Their partnership was the key and the reason why India was in the contest the majority of the time. HITMAN and the Prince scored their centuries. But they were dismissed quickly after lunch.
Ben Stokes, who never bowled in this five-match Test series got the wicket of Shubman Gill on 110 runs while the skipper of the Men in Blue was out to Jimmy Anderson for a well-made 103 runs.
Sarfaraz Khan and the debutant Devdutt Padikkal also smashed their half-centuries, which gave India the upper hand yesterday.
Sarfaraz scored 56 runs and Padikkal slammed a fifty in his first-ever match for the country. He made 65 runs. But India lost wickets in clusters in the last session of the second day's play.
It was Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley who gave England vital breakthroughs. Dhruv Jurel, who was so good in Ranchi was out to a rash shot. Then Jadeja was also out with Ashwin and was dismissed on a duck in his century red ball game.
It looked like England would get some overs to bat later in the second day. However, it was a fantastic resistance from Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah, allowing India to end their day two with still two wickets intact.
Kuldeep was the first one to depart on the day 3-morning session and his wicket was the 700th one for the legendary pace bowler, James Anderson while Bashir got Boom Boom Bumrah out stumped, which ended the Indian innings on 477 runs with a lead of 259 runs.
England had to toil hard with the red cherry in hand. But still, Shoaib got his second five fer in this series and he is the only bowler from England to get a five-wicket haul in two back-to-back matches even before the age of 21 years. Anderson and Hartley got one wicket each while Skipper Stokes also had a wicket to his name.
England needed to bat well because they were buried under a mountain of runs in Dharamshala. Their in-form openers need to fire. But Ben Duckett was over-ambitious and he was clean bowled by Ashwin.
Zak Crawley was out on a duck and the visitors lost three more wickets in the morning session. They were placed at 103 for 5 in the 1st session today.
Only Joe Root showed some class and resistance. While Jonny Bairstow was aggressive in front of Ashwin. But Kuldeep Yadav got Bairstow for 39 runs.
The England batters fell like a pack of cards. Ashwin who missed a chance of getting a five-fer in the 1st innings finally gets that milestone in the second innings.
While Kuldeep and Bumrah got two scalps each and Jaddu got one wicket to his name. India won the match by an innings and 64 runs to win the series by 4-1.