India hail their ‘sweetest’ win over England
VIRAT Kohli hailed India’s series win over England as his “sweetest” as captain yesterday after the hosts humiliated the tourists by an innings and 36 runs in the fourth Test.
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin tore through England’s lacklustre lower order in just half-an-hour in Mumbai as India clinched the five-match series 3-0 with a game to spare and equalled their longest unbeaten run.
England started the final day at the Wankhede Stadium trail- ing by 49 runs with four wickets remaining, and needing something extraordinary to avoid defeat.
But Ashwin grabbed all four wickets to send England crashing to 195 all out and finish with figures of 6-55 in the innings, and 12 scalps in the match.
Skipper Virat Kohli was named man of the match for his brilliant double century in a win that confirms India as Test cricket’s top side and avenges their two consecutive series defeats to England.
“This series win is probably the sweetest we have had in the last 14-15 months,” said Kohli, who took over from Mahendra Singh Dhoni as Test captain last year.
India have now won five straight series under Kohli, who struck his third double century of the year, and are unbeaten in 17 Tests, which equals their best-ever run which was set back in 1987.
England captain Alastair Cook paid tribute to Kohli’s batting, saying his Indian coun- terpart had led from the front and was in the form of his life.
“Clearly [he is] one of the greatest batsmen of our generation,” said Cook, the highest scorer of current Test players.
Kohli said Ashwin, who is the top-ranked bowler in world cricket, had once again proved to be a class apart.
“We are running out of words to describe his performances,” said the Indian skipper.
The fifth Test, which is now a dead rubber, starts in Chennai later on Friday.