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Clinical India keep series alive by outplaying England in the third Test
nottingham — India beat England by 203 runs in the third Test at Trent Bridge on Wednesday to cut the home side’s lead in the five-match series to 2-1.
England, set a mammoth 521 to win, were bowled out for 317.
India needed just 10 minutes to wrap up victory with Wednesday’s 17th ball after England resumed the fifth day on 311 for nine, the match ending when Ravichandran Ashwin had England No 11 James Anderson caught by Ajinkya Ra- hane at slip — the first wicket for an India spinner in this fixture.
This was just India’s seventh Test match victory in England.
England, whose captain Joe Root won the toss and fielded, slumped to 161 all out in their first innings when they were punished by Hardik Pandya’s five for 28 — the medium-pacer’s maiden five-wicket haul in Test cricket.
They suffered another top-order slump in a second innings where they had to make cricket history to pull off an improbable win — no side has made more in the fourth innings to win a Test than the West Indies’ 418 for seven against Australia at St John’s, Antigua in 2003.
This win kept alive India’s hopes of becoming just the second team, after a Don Bradman inspired Australia in 1936/37, to win a five-match Test series from 2-0 down.
“The victory was much needed at this stage of the series and to have a performance like that, which was so clinical in all three departments, is something that was pleasing to me as a captain,” said Kohli at the presentation ceremony.
“The players are really proud of what they’ve done in this Test too. Everyone is taking responsibility at the right time,” he added.
Root admitted England’s first-innings batting had let them down.
“It’s fair to say that we very much under-performed in that innings,” he said. “You look at the second innings and the partnership between Buttler and Stokes and that’s a real lesson to our side in how to play Test match cricket.” —