An inspired spell from Jimmy Anderson lead England to a dominant victory on Day 5 of the opening Test in Chennai. India were chasing a nominal total of 420 to win the game or more realistically needing to bat out the day to salvage a draw, however Anderson produced one of the great overs of his career to all but extinguish India's chances. India's captain Virat Kohli played beautifully for 72 but wickets fell all around him at the other end and England closed out their win by 227 runs midway through the afternoon session.
It was a near faultless performance from England and one of their finest of the modern era. Captain Joe Root continued his stellar start to 2021 with his 2nd double century & third score of 180+ as he made 218 in England's first innings score of 578 with Dom Sibley and the returning Ben Stokes both passing 80 as they made full use of a pitch offering little assistance to the bowlers on the opening two days.
Jofra Archer returning after the side having been rested for the tour of Sri Lanka struck twice early in India's reply and at 44-2 England were beginning to turn the screw. Enter Dom Bess, England's young off spinner had Kohli caught at short leg to end an unusually subdued innings from the Indian superstar and two overs later Root pulled off a stunning catch at short cover to send Ajinkya Rahane on his way for a duck and the home side were starring down the barrel. India did offer some resistance as Che Pujara and Rishabh Pant put on 119 for the 5th wicket but Bess as he has down throughout his fledgling career to date removed Pujara with a long hop which was pulled fiercely into the shoulder of Ollie Pope at short leg and lobbed straight to Rory Burns at midwicket. Pant however continued on his merry way but with India needing a really big innings from him to have any chance of repeating their famous victory of England's last tour, threw his wicket away on 91 and with it his side chances. Pant is a hugely talented young batsman but the next lesson he needs to learn is to curb his enthusiasm. This was the third occasion the young keeper batsman has been caught in the deep in the 90's and India can't afford for him to keep ending up on the wrong side of the fine line between positivity and recklessness.
Day four began with Washington Sundar and Ravi Ashwin at the crease and they added fifty much needed runs to India's overnight tally before Ashwin was removed by Jack Leach who had been tormented by Pant the previous day and the Somerset left arm spinner quickly added the wicket of Shahbaz Nadeem before James Anderson returned to mop up the tail leaving the hosts 241 adrift on first innings. Sundar would remain unbeaten on 85 and you can see why the tall left hander opens for Tamil Nadu in The Ranji Trophy, he has passed 50 in both of his Test appearances to date.
England declined to enforce the follow on and would now be looking to get India back into bat by the close of play. The debates around declarations were of course now in full flow, and of course these are much easier for those of us watching from our sofa's or the tv studio. 400+ always felt like it would be enough on a pitch now offering prodigious turn and signs of uneven bounce, Root decided to not offer India any chance of victory and after dominating almost all of the match to that point and why should he? When England were all out for 178 their lead had grown to 420 and India would need to bat 13 overs on the final evening and all of the final day for a draw.
India will be happy with the way they bowled in England's second innings with premier spinner Ravi Ashwin claiming 6-61 and Ishant Sharma becoming only the 3rd seamer for India to reach the milestone of 300 Test wickets when he trapped Dan Lawrence leg before.
Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill set about India's pursuit of 420 in a positive manner with a few early boundaries including Sharma pulling Archer into the stands for a maximum, but Jack Leach would provide England with the breakthrough they so desperately wanted on the fourth evening. The Somerset man produced a beauty that drifted in from around the wicket, pitched in line with middle and then spun away sharply beating Sharma's outside edge and knocking back his off stump.
Leach struck again early on in the final day removing Pujara caught by Stokes at slip for 15 to leave India 58-2. Gill and Kohli then got stuck into some generous bowling from Dom Bess to steady the ship however the introduction of James Anderson to the attack would in the space of five deliveries all but end India's hopes.
Having just reached a third Test fifty Gill, nudged Anderson's first delivery to mid wicket. the second delivery was slightly wider and tailed in again finding the gap between Gill's bat and his front pad with laser like precision to send the openers off stop cartwheeling. Three balls later Anderson produced a carbon copy of that delivery to send vice captain Ajinkya Rahane on his way for a duck with the off stump doing cartwheels once more. The previous delivery from Anderson had rapped Rahane on the front pad but Umpire Nitin Menon adjudged he has got his pad outside the line of off stump and declined England's appeal. Joe Root reviewed the decision and with ball tracking showing less than 50% of the ball being in line with off stump at the moment of impact his decision was upheld despite the ball going on to be hitting middle stump a quarter of the way up. Due to the vagaries of the DRS protocols Menon's decision was correct however had he raised the finger and Rahane reviewed the decision he would still of been given out. Such a scenario gives the ICC something think about.
There were to be no fireworks from Rishabh Pant this time and when he was caught at short cover by Joe Root off Anderson via a leading edge for 11 the writing was well and truly on the wall for the hosts at 110-5. Just eight deliveries later Washington Sundar departed without troubling the scorers as he edged Dom Bess through to Jos Buttler. Ravi Ashwin did manage to hang around with Kohli for a while with the India captain playing a series of glorious strokes off both spinners and the seamers, as he moved past 50 with ease. Ashwin then became Leach's third victim of the innings attempted to cut a slightly short ball he could only get a slight top edge through to Buttler who made no mistake with the gauntlets. A couple of overs later it was effectively all over when a Stokes delivery to Kohli kept low on the India captain scuttled under his bat and sent his off stump flying. It was a harsh end for Kohli who had in truth played beautifully and not offered England a sniff prior to his dismissal. Nadeem went to Leach to complete a pair and then Jofra Archer ended proceedings when Jasprit Bumrah edged to Buttler leaving India all out for 192 and England victorious by 227 runs.
It was truth be told a near perfect performance from England, Joe Root importantly won the toss and choose to bat on a wicket that offered little for the bowlers for the first two days and England and Root himself in particular cashed in. By the time India got a bat on day three the wicket had begun to spin nicely for Leach and Bess, and it was Bess in particular who made most of the conditions and the scoreboard pressure resulting from England's mammoth score as the tourists took wickets at regular intervals to leave India well behind on first innings. Root's decision not in force the follow on was the correct one and although England could of batted better second time around they ended up setting the hosts a world record chase in 103 overs. Shane Warne in particular was critical of Root's decision not to declare England's second innings even going so far as to claim that the ends don't justify the means after England's win. Root's men won with over three hours of the match remaining with plenty of runs in the bank. It would seem therefore that ends do very much justify the means Shane.
England 578 (Root 218, Sibley 87, Stokes 82) & 178 (Root 40, Ashwin 6-61) beat India 377 (Pant 91, Sundar 85*, Pujara 73, Bess 4-76) & 192 (Kohli 72, Leach 4-76, Anderson 3-17) by 227 runs and lead the series 1-0
11 Feb 2021
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