India beat England by 8 wickets
RAVINDRA JADEJA’S sparkling allround performance floored England and handed India an unbeatable 2-0 series after they cantered home to a comprehensive eight-wicket win in the third Test yesterday.
Top-ranked India surpassed the 103-run target in the final session of the fourth day at Mohali with recalled opener Parthiv Patel (67 not out) hitting the winning runs.
England seamer Chris Woakes had struck early to send back opener Murali Vijay for nought but the wicket was just a small glitch on India’s road to victory.
Patel and Cheteshwar Pujara (25) then put on an 81-run partnership to enable the hosts register their second straight win of the five-match series.
The first Test in Rajkot ended in a draw before India won the Visakhapatnam game by 246 runs.
Patel, returning to the Test side after an eight-year gap, struck 11 fours and a six off 54 balls on way to his fifth Test half-century.
Skipper Virat Kohli, who was at the other end when stumps were drawn, hugged Patel to celebrate his team’s well-earned victory.
It was the steely lower-order resistance from the Indian batsmen and a combined effort by their bowlers that set up victory for the Kohli-led side.
Left-handed Jadeja scored a career-best 90 in India’s 417-run first innings total before finishing with a match haul of four wickets.
Jadeja’s knock surpassed his previous-best of 68 he made against the same opposition at Lord’s in 2014.
Ashwin, who claimed three wickets in England’s second essay, also hit 72 with three other Indian batsmen making half-centuries. – AFP Open, will be the second to play in the sixth group out. It will be the first time Woods has played competitively since he shared 10th at Greensboro in August of last year. Woods, who fell to 898th in the world rankings yesterday, missed the cut at the US and British Opens and the PGA Championship last year. Defending champion Bubba Watson and Rickie Fowler are the first duo out followed at 10-minute intervals by two more US pairs, Jimmy Walker and Brandt Snedeker then J.B. Holmes and Zach Johnson. Reigning Olympic champion Justin Rose of England and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson, the runner-up in Rio, will start in a repeat of their dramatic last-round Olympic pairing, with past winner Jordan Spieth and Matt Kuchar next followed by Woods and Reed. Reigning US Open champion Dustin Johnson and fellow American Brooks Koepka follow Woods onto the course with the final two duos consisting of international talent – Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and South African Louis Oosthuizen followed by Scotsman Russell Knox and Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo.