LEEDS, Aug 28:
Pacer Ollie Robinson engineered a middle-order collapse with the second new ball as England completed a facile innings and 76 run victory against India on the fourth day of the third Test, here today.
All the good work on Friday, when India reached 215 for two at stumps, was completely undone as Robinson (5/26) and James Anderson (1/26) hit the right lengths and got movement off-the pitch to wrap up the Indian innings in a jiffy. India were all out for 278 in the morning session.
It was a match that England won by executing their strategies to perfection with an idea of opposition’s soft underbellies.
It was Robinson’s second five-for in the series and the tall seamer after a difficult initiation to Test cricket due to off-field controversies is proving to be an asset for this team.
Robinson had served an unconditional apology after his racist tweets surfaced on the day of his Test debut against New Zealand in June.
India had lost the match on the first day itself when they were bowled out for 78 as it meant that they were always playing a catching up game in this Test match.
India skipper Virat Kohli said it was high quality bowling from England that forced mistakes from the visiting batsmen.
“It’s quite bizarre, it can happen in this country, batting collapses. We thought the pitch was good to bat on, coming on nicely. But the discipline forced mistakes and the pressure was relentless. Difficult to cope when you’re not scoring runs. That caused the batting order to crumble,” he said.
A huge first innings lead of 354 taken by England only increased the worry with three days of batting needed to save the game.
Kohli acknowledged the “scoreboard pressure”. (PTI)
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