 "India vs England 5th Test: Kuldeep, Ashwin wreak havoc as India dominate Day 1")
Team India made a confident start with the bat on Day 1 of the fifth Test against England in Dharamsala on Thursday after they bowled the visitors out for 218. India were 135/1 at stumps on Day 1, trailing England by 83 runs. Earlier, England won the toss and opted to bat first, and while they got off to a confident start with openers Zak Crawley (79) and Ben Duckett (27) scoring 64 runs together, Kuldeep Yadav (5/72) and Ravichandran Ashwin (4/51) wreaked havoc with the ball to see off England after Tea.
Ashwin, playing his 100th Test, was felicitated by head coach Rahul Dravid with a special Test cap and given a guard of honour ahead of the match. However, it was Kuldeep who struck first for the hosts in the 18th over with the dismissal of Duckett. The biggest wicket would come in the 38th over, when a deceptive turning delivery tricked Crawley into playing the drive as the ball turned and crashed into the stumps. In between, Kuldeep also got rid of Ollie Pope (11), who was stumped by Dhruv Jurel. He dismissed captain Ben Stokes for a duck to complete a fifer.
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Ashwin, meanwhile, struck twice in the 50th over to remove Tom Hartley and Mark Wood. England were already reeling at 183/8 following the duo’s dismissals, and it was just a matter of time before Ashwin wrapped up England’s innings with the wickets of Ben Foakes and James Anderson in the 58th over.
In reply, India got off to a confident start with Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal forging 104 runs for the first wicket. Jaiswal was once again was aggressive with his approach, getting to his fifty in 56 deliveries, hitting four fours and three sixes. However, Jaiswal was then stumped by Foakes in the 21st over off Shoaib Bashir, ending the openers’ knock. That was the highest opening stand for India in this series.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsShubman Gill then joined Rohit in the middle and the two forged a 31-run stand, with Rohit getting to his half century off 77 balls in the 25th over.
The southpaw’s pre-meditated charge down the ground came soon after he became only the second Indian to amass 700 runs in a series after the legendary Sunil Gavaskar, who achieved the feat twice against the West Indies in 1971 and 1978-79.
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The ball did not do much for the England pacers and spinners compared to their Indian counterparts. Jaiswal was watchful to start with and waited for the spinners to be in operation. He put Bashir to sword in his very first over by dispatching him for three sixes into the stands, two of them over extra cover.
The Indian skipper, at the other end, too played confidently. He made his intentions clear by pulling a 150kmph rising delivery off Mark Wood over fine leg for six in the fourth over of the innings.
His second maximum came off spinner Tom Hartley in the cow corner region.
However, India’s march to command started in the second session when they reduced the visitors to 194 for eight at tea as Kuldeep engineered a middle-order collapse that saw England lose three wickets for no run.
All of a sudden England found themselves reeling at 175 for six from three down on the same score.
England lost six wickets in the middle session for 94 runs.
Kuldeep could have got rid of Zak Crawley (79 off 108) on the second ball after lunch break but India opted against DRS for a catch.
But the 29-year-old spinner did not have to wait long thereafter as he got one to turn massively from the imaginary fifth stump to shatter the England opener’s leg-stump. Both the inward drift and the sharp turn led to Crawley’s dismissal.
Jonny Bairstow (29 off 19b), who is also playing his 100th Test, showed plenty of intent in his innings but could not last long. Like the other batters, he could not read Kuldeep from his hands and got a faint outside edge off a googly.
He went for a review but ended up wasting it, exactly what Joe Root (26) and Ben Stokes (0) did on the same score of 175. Jadeja trapped Root in front with a straighter one after beating the English batter’s outside edge on the previous ball.
Stokes was the fifth victim of Kuldeep who had the opposition skipper plumb in front with a googly. Kuldeep ended up bowling 15 overs straight on either side of the lunch and afternoon session.
Ashwin sent back Hartley and Wood in quick session to join the spinners’ party. In the morning, Crawley made a classy unbeaten half-century after surviving an extended opening spell from the Indian pacers before Kuldeep struck twice to leave the visitors at 100 for two at lunch.
On expected lines, the skillful duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj made the ball talk but Ben Duckett (27 off 58) and Crawley were able to see off the first 14 overs of fast bowling after being beaten multiple times.
Crawley, who has been England’s stand-out batter in this series, was meticulous with his shot selection and played some delightful cover drives off pacers on way to his half-century.
Siraj ended up bowling eight overs in the morning session and Bumrah seven with both conceding 24 runs.
Kuldeep came to bowl in the 18th over and struck instantly.
Despite being hit for two fours off his first five balls, Kuldeep was not afraid to flight the ball and was rewarded when Duckett’s mistimed hit was pouched by Gill, who took a spectacular catch running backwards from cover. Like Duckett, Crawley too was beaten by the pacers in the first hour of play but he picked the right balls to flaunt his cover drives.
He reached his fourth half-century of the series with a boundary down the ground but that remained the only bright spot for England this day.
With PTI inputs
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