Nottingham: India’s cornered cricketers produced a fantastic collective performance to outclass England by 203 runs in the third Test to keep the five-match series alive here, Wednesday.
Needing only a wicket on the final morning, India completed the formalities in only 2.5 overs as England were bowled out for 317, well short of the mammoth victory target of 521 runs.
India now trail England 1-2 but more importantly got some breathing space after a heart-breaking defeat in Edgbaston, followed by the debacle at the Lord’s.
Ravichandran Ashwin dismissed James Anderson (11) to script a morale-boosting win. The heartening aspect was the kind of domination shown by the Indian team in what can easily be termed as a complete performance under Virat Kohli’s captaincy outside the sub-continent.
Jasprit Bumrah (5/85) produced a hostile spell of fast bowling to put India on brink of a comprehensive victory before the final England pair of Adil Rashid (33 n o) and Jimmy Anderson (11) delayed the inevitable on an engrossing fourth day.
Coming back from injury, Bumrah wreaked havoc with the second new ball after stiff resistance from Jos Buttler (106, 176b, 21×4) and Ben Stokes (62, 187b, 6×4), who added 169 runs for the fifth wicket after England were reduced to 62/2. This was Burmrah’s second five-wicket haul in only fourth Test.