The Indian team completed a comprehensive 10-wicket win in the third Test match against England at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The day-night affair lasted just around five sessions as the spinners from both sides did the damage with the pink ball.
England batted first after winning the toss and started off well with Zak Crawley making a half-century. But the local boy Akshar Patel ruined the England party with 6/38, as the visitors were bowled out for 112, while R Ashwin picked three wickets and Ishant Sharma in his 100th Test also claimed a scalp.
India ended day one on 99/3 with Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane being the unbeaten batsmen. However, on day two, Jack Leach and Joe Root ran riot as India folded for 145 runs with Rohit making 66. Joe Root picked his maiden fifer, figures of 5/8 and Leach picked four wickets, keeping India’s lead to 33 runs.
However, England failed to capitalize on that lead, as Akshar Patel came to haunt England with figures of 5/32 and R Ashwin also picked four wickets, completing his 600 international wickets and reaching 400 Test wickets in the process. England managed just 81 runs, their lowest total against India in Tests.
IND v ENG 2021: Michael Vaughan melts down after England get bowled out for 81; India set 49 to win
Akshar Patel ended up with 11/70 in his second Test, while R Ashwin picked 7 wickets in the match. India reached the measly target of 49 with ease as Rohit made 25* and Shubman made 15* taking the home side to a 10-wicket victory.
With this win, India notched up a 2-1 lead in the series with one more Test to go, to be played in Ahmedabad as well from March 4 onwards. However, with this loss, England is out of the race to qualify for the finals of the World Test Championship, while India needs to either win or draw the last Test match to qualify.
Meanwhile, the cricket fraternity lauded a remarkable performance by Team India on Twitter.
Here are the tweets:
