As the lead increased England’s morale visibly collapsed. The passage of play witnessed complete domination on part of the two youngsters. They took the game away from England.
A comprehensive triumph by an innings and 25 runs in the fourth Test helped India to seal the Test series against England 3-1 and qualify for the ICC World Test Championship final. India will play the final against New Zealand at Lord’s between 18 and 22 June. After taking a massive first-innings lead of 160 runs at Motera, Ahmedabad, India bowled England out for a mere 135 as R Ashwin and Axar Patel shared five wickets apiece. The entire England second innings did not even last two sessions, and the match was done and dusted well within three days.
Starting the day at 294/7, Washington Sundar and Axar Patel began with a touch of audacity. England’s bowling looked flat from the start. Against the two left-handers, off-spinner Dom Bess failed to build any sort of pressure and kept leaking runs. Even James Anderson and Ben Stokes were unable to get the amount of purchase from the surface they extracted in the first hour of Day 2.
Sundar struck a six and a four to take India past 300, and the lead soon crossed the three-figure mark. As the lead increased England’s morale visibly collapsed. The passage of play witnessed complete domination on part of the two youngsters. They took the game away from England.
The visitors finally broke the 106-run eighth-wicket stand when Axar was run out by Jonny Bairstow for 43. Stokes then took two wickets in four balls to wrap the innings up for 365. Sundar was left stranded on 96, four short of a maiden Test ton.
England played out the brief period before lunch without hiccups. After the break, however, they lost four wickets inside 11 overs. In the second over of the post-lunch session, Ashwin removed Zak Crawley and Bairstow in consecutive deliveries. Crawley was caught at slips by Ajinkya Rahane while playing for the turn, while Bairstow fell in the leg-slip trap, registering his third nought in four innings of the series.
Axar then soon got the wicket’s column when Dom Sibley swept one straight to forward short leg, only for the ball to lob to Rishabh Pant. Soon Stokes swept one straight to leg slip with England tottering at 30/4. For the next 10 overs, Ollie Pope and Joe Root delayed the inevitable Indian victory.
Pope used his feet against the spinners, but it accounted for his downfall as well when he was aptly stumped by Pant off Axar. Ashwin then trapped Root LBW when the English skipper misjudged the trajectory of the delivery. He had got out in a similar manner to the same bowler in the previous Test match.
England went to tea at 91/6, trailing by 59.
Ben Foakes and Dan Lawrence tried to put some resistance. They added 44 for the seventh wicket and took the score past the 100-run mark. They looked confident in footwork, and made the Indian bowlers sweat for a while. However, Axar eventually accounted for Foakes and Bess to complete his fourth five-wicket haul.
Lawrence looked England’s best batsman in the game. He played well for his 50 as Jack Leach tried to grab some quick runs. But their efforts were not enough to make India bat again. England’s misery finally came to an end in the 54th over when Ashwin completed the formalities by getting the last two scalps.
Only four Indian bowlers were required to do the job during England’s second innings as Ishant Sharma didn’t take field due to an injury concern.
Brief scores:
England 205 (Ben Stokes 55; Axar Patel 4-68) and 135 (Dan Lawrence 50; R Ashwin 5-47, Axar Patel 5-48) lost to India 365 (Rishabh Pant 101, Washington Sundar 96*; Ben Stokes 4-89) by an innings and 25 runs.
Player of the match: Rishabh Pant
Player of the series: R Ashwin