AGENCY
VISAKHAPATNAM: Ravichandran Ashwin was back in his element with yet another five-wicket haul, setting up a perfect launchpad for skipper Virat Kohli to extend India’s lead to 298 runs against England on the third day of the second cricket Test here. Courtesy Ashwin’s 5 for 67, the first time he has picked so many against England in an innings, India bowled out England for 255 in their first essay to take a commanding lead of 200 runs.
Deciding against enforcing follow-on, India reached 98 for 3 in their second innings at close of play with skipper Kohli once again leading from the front with an attacking 56 off 70 balls. His innings was laced with six boundaries. First-innings centurion, Kohli, was batting in the company of Ajinkya Rahane (22). While the pitch has not deteriorated massively, but batting on fourth and fifth day will be trickier and Kohli would like to take charge and set up a target beyond the reach of the visitors, who will be batting fourth. After an indifferent first session, it was Ashwin, who turned the tables on the visitors with his 22nd five-wicket haul in Test cricket. The off-spinner faced some challenges but he returned to rip through the tail with wickets in successive deliveries after Ben Stokes (70) and Jonny Bairstow (53) put on 110 runs for the fifth wicket. With overnight figures of 2 for 20, Ashwin had a lean first spell (9-1-33-0) after he was introduced in the second over of the day, struggling to break the Stokes-Bairstow partnership.
But he returned in the second session and got the balls to grip and skid off the pitch in a fine spell of 7.5-0-14-3, which included the wicket of England top-scorer Stokes, who hit 11 boundaries. Ashwin now has five-wicket haul against all the Test nations he has played against — six against New Zealand, four each against Australia, South Africa and West Indies, two against Sri Lanka and one each against Bangladesh and England.
In 2016, the 30-year-old has 52 wickets, two behind Rangana Herath’s 54. The left-hander carried England’s survival hopes and found a fine ally in Bairstow (53), who batted brilliantly despite a troubled ankle before being cleaned up by a fullish delivery from Umesh Yadav with 10 minutes to go for the lunch. With 33 minutes to tea, England’s first innings folded for in 102.5 overs with a deficit of exactly 200 runs.
England however had an impressive first session with Stokes and Bairstow oozing oodles of confidence and determination on a pitch with variable bounce but little assistance for spinners, perhaps due to the use of roller this morning. Starting off from the pavillion end, Ashwin had an underwhelming first spell that included a first ball DRS referral only to be overturned.
Bairstow got one to sweep with a not-out verdict but an overconfident Ashwin showed the ‘T’ sign without consulting his captain Kohli as the ace off-spinner had an underwhelming first session to his own standard.
Then in the 55th over, Wriddhiman Saha failed to gather the ball cleanly with Stokes’ backfoot out of crease as a stumping opportunity with the batsman on 24, was missed.
Stokes and Bairstow (53) dominated the first session and with India desperate for a breakthrough, Umesh Yadav finally gave the opening when he cleaned up the latter with a fuller delivery.(PTI)
SCORECARD
India 1st innings 455/10
England 1st innings
AN Cook* b Mohammed Shami 02
H Hameed run out (J Yadav/†Saha) 13
JE Root c UT Yadav b Ashwin 53
BM Duckett b Ashwin 05
MM Ali lbw b J Yadav 01
BA Stokes lbw b Ashwin 70
JM Bairstow† b UT Yadav 53
AU Rashid not out 32
ZS Ansari lbw b Jadeja 04
SCJ Broad lbw b Ashwin 13
JM Anderson lbw b Ashwin 00
Extras 09
Total 255/10
India 2nd innings
M Vijay c Root b Broad 03
KL Rahul c †Bairstow b Broad 10
CA Pujara b Anderson 01
V Kohli* not out 56
AM Rahane not out 22
Extras 06
Total 98/3
