Visakhapatnam, Nov 19:
Ravichandran Ashwin was back in his element with yet another five-wicket haul, setting up a perfect launchpad for skipper Virat Kohli to extend India’s lead to 298 runs against England on the third day of the second cricket Test here.
Courtesy Ashwin’s 5 for 67, the first time he has picked so many against England in an innings, India bowled out England for 255 in their first essay to take a commanding lead of 200 runs.
Deciding against enforcing follow-on, India reached 98 for 3 in their second innings at close of play with skipper Kohli once again leading from the front with an attacking 56 off 70 balls. His innings was laced with six boundaries.
First-innings centurion, Kohli, was batting in the company of Ajinkya Rahane (22).
While the pitch has not deteriorated massively, but batting on fourth and fifth day will be trickier and Kohli would like to take charge and set up a target beyond the reach of the visitors, who will be batting fourth.
After an indifferent first session, it was Ashwin, who turned the tables on the visitors with his 22nd five-wicket haul in Test cricket.
The off-spinner faced some challenges but he returned to rip through the tail with wickets in successive deliveries after Ben Stokes (70) and Jonny Bairstow (53) put on 110 runs for the fifth wicket.
With overnight figures of 2 for 20, Ashwin had a lean first spell (9-1-33-0) after he was introduced in the second over of the day, struggling to break the Stokes-Bairstow partnership.
But he returned in the second session and got the balls to grip and skid off the pitch in a fine spell of 7.5-0-14-3, which included the wicket of England top-scorer Stokes, who hit 11 boundaries.
Ashwin now has five-wicket haul against all the Test nations he has played against — six against New Zealand, four each against Australia, South Africa and West Indies, two against Sri Lanka and one each against Bangladesh and England.
In 2016, the 30-year-old has 52 wickets, two behind Rangana Herath’s 54.
The left-hander carried England’s survival hopes and found a fine ally in Bairstow (53), who batted brilliantly despite a troubled ankle before being cleaned up by a fullish delivery from Umesh Yadav with 10 minutes to go for the lunch.
With 33 minutes to tea, England’s first innings folded for in 102.5 overs with a deficit of exactly 200 runs.
England however had an impressive first session with Stokes and Bairstow oozing oodles of confidence and determination on a pitch with variable bounce but little assistance for spinners, perhaps due to the use of roller this morning.
Starting off from the pavillion end, Ashwin had an underwhelming first spell that included a first ball DRS referral only to be overturned.
Bairstow got one to sweep with a not-out verdict but an overconfident Ashwin showed the ‘T’ sign without consulting his captain Kohli as the ace off-spinner had an underwhelming first session to his own standard.(PTI)
SCOREBOARD
India 1st Innings: 455
England 1st innings: (Overnight 103-5)
Alastair Cook b Shami 2
Haseeb Hameed run out 13
Joe Root c Yadav b Ashwin 53
Ben Duckett b Ashwin 5
Moeen Ali lbw b Yadav 1
Ben Stokes lbw b Ashwin 70
Jonny Bairstow b Yadav 53
Adil Rashid not out 32
Zafar Ansari lbw b Jadeja 4
Stuart Broad lbw b Ashwin 13
James Anderson lbw b Ashwin 0
Extras: (B-6 LB-3) 9
Total: (all out in 102.5 overs) 255
Fall of wickets: 1-4 2-51 3-72 4-79 5-80 6-190, 7-225, 8-234, 9-255.
Bowling: Mohammed Shami 14-5-28-1, Umesh Yadav 18-2-56-1, Ravindra Jadeja 29-10-57-1, Ravichandran Ashwin 29.5-6-67-5, Jayant Yadav 12-3-38-1.
India 2nd Innings:
Murali Vijay batting 3
KL Rahul batting 1
Extras: (LB-4) 4
Total: (For no loss in 6 overs) 8
Bowling: J Anderson 3-0-3-0, S Broad 2-2-0-0, A Rashid 1-0-1-0.
India 2nd innings:
M Vijay c Root b Broad 3
KL Rahul c Bairstow b Broad 10
C Pujara b Anderson 1
V Kohli not out 56
A Rahane not out 22
Extras: (LB-5, B-1) 6
Total: (For 3 wkts; 34 overs) 98
Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-17, 3-40.
Bowling: Anderson 8-1-16-1, Broad 6-5-6-2, Rashid 12-1-37-0, Stokes 5-0-25-0, Ali 3-1-9-0.
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