India vs England 2021, 4th Test: Day 3 – India Win Series After Spinners Secure An Innings Victory

The hosts India won the four-match Test series by the 3-1 margin after beating the visitors England by an innings and 25 runs in the last game of the series at Ahmedabad. With this victory, India have qualified for the final of the 2019-21 ICC World Test Championship, where they will face New Zealand at Lord’s (London) this June.

Starting day 3 on their overnight score of 294/7, India scored 365 runs before losing all wickets. Trailing by 160 runs at the beginning of their second innings, England were bundled out for just 135 runs.

India vs England 2021, 4th Test: Day 3 – Washington Sundar was unlucky to miss his century but secured 150+ lead

Overnight batsmen Washington Sundar and Axar Patel continued their strong partnership and set up the 106 runs partnership for the eighth wicket. Starting the day on 11 runs, Axar scored 43 runs off 97 balls (5 fours and only six) before he was run-out.

In the meantime, Sundar continued his impressive batting performance starting the day from his last night score of 60 runs. While he was approaching his maiden Test century, he didn’t get the late support as Ben Stokes took the last two wickets by dismissing Ishant Sharma (0) and Mohammed Siraj (0) as Sundar unfortunately ended that innings on 96 not out off 174 balls (10 fours and 1 six).

India vs England 2021, 4th Test: Day 3 – Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin both claimed 5-wicket hauls

England started their second innings by trailing 160 runs and they scored 6/0 at the lunch break. But since the second session of the day, they had totally poor experiences against the Indian spinners. While most of the English top-order batsmen failed to score enough runs, the visitors were totally in danger to suffer the innings defeat.

Captain Joe Root fought hard and scored 30 runs off 72 balls (3 fours) before Ravichandran Ashwin successfully trapped him for lbw. While the other top four batsmen failed to reach the double-digit scores, Ollie Pope was stumped out for 15 runs where Rishabh Pant brilliantly stumped the English cricketer. Dan Lawrence batted superbly but Ben Foakes (13) was their only other batsman to reach the double-digit scores in that innings.

At the end of that innings, Lawrence fought single-handedly and completed his deserving fifty. But Ashwin ended the game by dismissing Lawrence for 50 off 95 balls (6 fours).

Both Ashwin and Axar Patel this time managed to claim five-wicket hauls as Ashwin finished with the bowling figures of 22-.5-4-47-5 and Axar finished with the bowling figures of 24-6-48-5.

Brief Scores: England – 205 (Ben Stokes 55, Dan Lawrence 46; Axar Patel 4/68) & 135 (Dan Lawrence 50, Joe Root 30; Ravichandran Ashwin 5/47)

India – 365 (Rishabh Pant 101, Washington Sundar 96*; Ben Stokes 4/89)

Result – India won by an innings & 25 runs