Mission accomplished in style
From Madhu Jawali Chennai, Dec 21, 2016, DHNS
Kohli's men trigger stunning England collapse on final afternoon to wrap up series 4-0
After four days and one session of absolute domination of the bat that saw three big hundreds being scored, the bowlers finally came into play on a pitch that responded to their efforts like a stubborn girl would to the persistent wooing of a besotted boy.
England have had more dramatic collapses in recent times; like the one against Bangladesh about a couple of months ago in Dhaka where they lost all their 10 wickets in a single session to lose a Test for the first time against Asian minnows.
However feeble it may have sounded, they at least had the excuse of playing on a rank turner then. The MA Chidambaram pitch for the fifth Test offered them no such escape route. In an abject surrender, England, overnight 12/0 in pursuit of India’s lead of 282, got shot out for 207 in 88 overs to hand Virat Kohli and Co an innings and 75-run win here on Tuesday. As Ravindra Jadeja ran riot on the day to give India a victory which at one stage looked a distant possibility, the hosts completed a 4-0 rout. Jadeja, who claimed 7/48, also took a brilliant catch to dismiss Jonny Bairstow off Ishant Sharma, running a fair distance back from short mid-wicket.
While it wasn’t quite a whitewash, the 4-0 scoreline would go a long way in erasing the bad memories of India’s 4-0 and 3-1 away drubbings by England in 2011 and 2014 respectively. It was another completely professional performance by India who won their third match of the series despite losing the toss in four of their victories.
For the first four days of the final tie, the pitch had firmly sided with the batsmen and it showed few signs of shifting loyalties on the fifth day as overnight openers Alastair Cook (49), who was dropped by Parthiv Patel off R Ashwin early in the day, and Keaton Jennings (54) carried England to lunch without any damage (97/0). Just when it appeared that England would comfortably pull through the day and avoid a 4-0 humiliation, things turned on their heads with the fall of Cook, the first of the seven victims by Jadeja who returned his best figures in an innings bettering his previous best of 6/138. This was also Jadeja’s first 10-wicket haul (10/154) in a match.
Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma and Amit Mishra too gave breakthroughs at crucial junctures as England crumbled from a comfortable position of 103 for no loss. The spunk they had showed in the morning session was surprisingly missing from the post-lunch period as they lost all their 10 wickets in just 48.2 overs while scoring 104 runs in about three and half hours. More shockingly, they lost their last six wickets while adding 15 runs in 16.8 overs. It was as spineless a batting performance as one can see on what Cook described a “fair” Test wicket.
While the odd ball spun from the rough, it wasn’t non-negotiable as Cook and Jennings had proved in the morning. While panic did play its part, some of the shots played by the English batsmen, especially by a well-set Moeen Ali, were irresponsible.
Once Jadeja claimed the England’s skipper for the sixth time this series with a leg-slip trap, the floodgates opened. The left-arm spinner claimed all his wickets from the Pavilion End spread over three spells (9-1-38-3, 7-2-10-2, 2-2-0-2) and on either side of middle and final session. That his dominant spin partner Ashwin claimed just one wicket in the match (in the first innings) made Jadeja’s effort that much more special. While triple centurion Karun Nair was the man of the match, the Saurashtra all-rounder was clearly the man of the moment.
England have had more dramatic collapses in recent times; like the one against Bangladesh about a couple of months ago in Dhaka where they lost all their 10 wickets in a single session to lose a Test for the first time against Asian minnows.
However feeble it may have sounded, they at least had the excuse of playing on a rank turner then. The MA Chidambaram pitch for the fifth Test offered them no such escape route. In an abject surrender, England, overnight 12/0 in pursuit of India’s lead of 282, got shot out for 207 in 88 overs to hand Virat Kohli and Co an innings and 75-run win here on Tuesday. As Ravindra Jadeja ran riot on the day to give India a victory which at one stage looked a distant possibility, the hosts completed a 4-0 rout. Jadeja, who claimed 7/48, also took a brilliant catch to dismiss Jonny Bairstow off Ishant Sharma, running a fair distance back from short mid-wicket.
While it wasn’t quite a whitewash, the 4-0 scoreline would go a long way in erasing the bad memories of India’s 4-0 and 3-1 away drubbings by England in 2011 and 2014 respectively. It was another completely professional performance by India who won their third match of the series despite losing the toss in four of their victories.
For the first four days of the final tie, the pitch had firmly sided with the batsmen and it showed few signs of shifting loyalties on the fifth day as overnight openers Alastair Cook (49), who was dropped by Parthiv Patel off R Ashwin early in the day, and Keaton Jennings (54) carried England to lunch without any damage (97/0). Just when it appeared that England would comfortably pull through the day and avoid a 4-0 humiliation, things turned on their heads with the fall of Cook, the first of the seven victims by Jadeja who returned his best figures in an innings bettering his previous best of 6/138. This was also Jadeja’s first 10-wicket haul (10/154) in a match.
Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma and Amit Mishra too gave breakthroughs at crucial junctures as England crumbled from a comfortable position of 103 for no loss. The spunk they had showed in the morning session was surprisingly missing from the post-lunch period as they lost all their 10 wickets in just 48.2 overs while scoring 104 runs in about three and half hours. More shockingly, they lost their last six wickets while adding 15 runs in 16.8 overs. It was as spineless a batting performance as one can see on what Cook described a “fair” Test wicket.
While the odd ball spun from the rough, it wasn’t non-negotiable as Cook and Jennings had proved in the morning. While panic did play its part, some of the shots played by the English batsmen, especially by a well-set Moeen Ali, were irresponsible.
Once Jadeja claimed the England’s skipper for the sixth time this series with a leg-slip trap, the floodgates opened. The left-arm spinner claimed all his wickets from the Pavilion End spread over three spells (9-1-38-3, 7-2-10-2, 2-2-0-2) and on either side of middle and final session. That his dominant spin partner Ashwin claimed just one wicket in the match (in the first innings) made Jadeja’s effort that much more special. While triple centurion Karun Nair was the man of the match, the Saurashtra all-rounder was clearly the man of the moment.
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