India vs England, 3rd Test: Hosts ride Axar, Ashwin show to script 10-wicket win

Riding on brilliant spells of spin bowling from Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin India registered a comprehensive 10wicket win over England in the pinkball Test at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Thursday to go 21 up in the fourmatch series In the end English skipper Joe Root winning the toss and batting first meant nothing as the visitors were completely outplayed in the gameChasing 49 for a win India raced home with 10 wickets in the bag as Rohit Sharma 25 and Shubman Gill 15 looked in a hurry to finish proceedings Rohit finished it off in style by sending Root into the midwicket stands The win has taken India one step closer to the final of the World Test ChampionshipBut the star of the show was hometown boy Axar as he finished with 11 wickets in the game six in the first innings and five in the second Senior partner Ashwin wasnt to be left too far behind as he picked four wickets to finish with 7 in the game Interestingly the offspinner also became the secondfastest to 400 Test wickets during Englands second innings when he trapped Jofra Archer plumb in frontRoot and Jack Leachs domination in the opening session on the second day was indication enough that the English batsmen would have their task cut out in the second innings And that is exactly how it panned out as Axar picked his third consecutive fifer in Test cricketIt all started from the first ball of Englands second innings as Axar took the new ball and immediately sent back first innings topscorer Zak Crawley for a duck The flow of wickets didnt stop from thereon with only Root 19 and Ben Stokes 25 looking like they were in with a chance to take Englands total past the 100run markBut clearly the Indian spinners had other ideas as they kept picking wickets in quick succession to ensure that the game didnt roll out of their comfort zone for a second Washington Sundar picked the last England wicket as he sent back James Anderson 0 to see the visitors innings fold up for 81 their lowest in Test cricket against IndiaEarlier India lost seven wickets in 202 overs in the first session of the second day as the visitors rode on skipper Roots maiden fifer In the end the hosts managed 145 in their first essay a lead of 33 runsRoot became the first England skipper since Bob Willis in 1983 to take a Test fifer as he finished with figures of 58 from 62 overs Leach finished with figures of 454 from his 20 overs as Rohit Sharma 66 was the best batsman on display for the hosts The rest had no answer to Root and Leach on a wicket that was turning square at times on the second afternoonInterestingly though the ball that didnt turn caused much damage on the first two days as the batsmen have found it tough to adapt to the skidding pink ballStarting the day on 993 Rohit did not have Ajinkya Rahanes company for long as Indias Test deputy was out for 7 minutes after passing Englands first innings total His lack of consistency will be a concern for the team managementWhile Leach got the ball to skid onto Rahane and the batsman faltered by going back to a full ball Rohit was the next to go as he missed a sweep off the leftarm spinnerIt was the Root show after that as he started with the wicket of dangerman Rishabh Pant While Pant pushed away from the body and was caught by keeper Foakes Washington Sundar and Axar Patel went back in quick succession without bothering the scorersWhile Sundar was a classic offspinners dismissal for Root Axar tried to attack the spinner from the word go and ended up giving a simple catch to Sibley at short extra cover Ashwin and Ishant Sharma did try their bit as they hit 17 and 10 respectively but it was clearly Roots afternoon as the Indian lowerorder had no answer to his disciplined effortThis after England was bundled out for 112 in the first innings with only Zak Crawley managing to hit 53 Of the 30 wickets that fell in the game 28 were picked by spinners with Ishant Sharma and Jofra Archer picking one wicket apieceBrief Scores England 112 and 81 Ben Stokes 25 Axar Patel 532 India 145 and 490 Rohit Sharma 25 Shubman Gill 15This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever