India bowled 20.4 overs in the first hour. Even by Ravindra Jadeja’s standards, that is a ridiculous amount. If England had any hopes that all they had to do was play out 90 overs on day five, they were in for something else. Ravichandran Ashwin and Jadeja burst through their overs and picked up the wickets of Ben Duckett and Moeen Ali on the way. All England could manage were 23 runs in the first 60 minutes.
The next hour of the morning session wasn’t so blink-and-you-miss, as Virat Kohli got his other spinner Jayant Yadav, who has a bit of a run-up, and pace bowler Mohammed Shami into the attack. But it was equally effective in terms of getting wickets. Yadav dismissed Ben Stokes with an unplayable delivery – one that an off-spinner dreams of bowling to a left-handed batsman. Then, India got the big one: Mohammed Shami trapped Joe Root plumb in front. The Englishman went for a desperate review, knowing he was the last man standing between India and a win, but it only delayed the inevitable.
From 87/2, England had sunk to 115/6 in 90 minutes on day five. That was soon to become 129/7 as Shami sent Moeen Ali packing. And to think England were 75/0 in 50 overs just last evening. It made you wonder whether the blockathon started by Alastair Cook and Haseeb Hameed was in fact the right call to make on an uneven pitch. England were never really going to manage defending and saving their wickets for 150 overs. Should they have tried to score?
Brief score:
India 455 (Virat Kohli 167, Cheteshwar Pujara 119; Moeen Ali 3/98, James Anderson 3/62) and 204 (Virat Kohli 81, Jayant Yadav 27*; Stuart Broad 4/33, Adil Rashid 4/82) lead England 255 (Ben Stokes 70, Joe Root 53; Ravichandran Ashwin 5/67, Mohammed Shami 1/28) and 142/7 (Alastair Cook 54; Mohammed Shami 2/30, Ravichandran Ashwin 2/45, Ravindra Jadeja 2/35) by 262 runs.