Virat Kohli and his men are unstoppable. There’s nothing that the current Indian team cannot achieve. The victory in the fifth and last Test against England at Chennai is a testimony to that. Kohli and company restricted England to 207 on day 5 of the last Test to seal the series 4-0. India won the match by 75 runs and an innings. With this win, India have been unbeaten for 18 consecutive matches, a record in itself. Virat Kohli is now at par with former India captain Sunil Gavaskar for achieving this unique feat.
England resumed the innings with their overnight score of 12/0. Captain Cook and Keaton Jennings put a 100-run stand together before Cook was dismissed. Ravindra Jadeja dismissed Cook for the sixth time in the series. The England captain was on 49 when he tried to play a wayward delivery from Jadeja for a single. Rahul took a sharp catch at leg slip and India got its first breakthrough.
Jadeja struck again and Jennings was the next man to depart with England 110/2. Jennings was caught and bowled by Jadeja when he was on 54. England were counting on Root and Ali to save the Test for them but Root was dismissed early by Jadeja. Kohli’s decision to use the Decision Review System (DRS) worked in India’s favour as Root was given leg before wicket on 6. With 126/3, Bairstow walked out in the middle to support Ali but he couldn’t do so.
Bairstow was dismissed on his sixth delivery as Jadeja took a running catch on Ishant Sharma’s delivery. England were 129/4 as Bairstow just added 1 to the scoreboard. A 63-run partnership between Ali and Stokes gave some hope to the visitors. Jadeja struck again and dismissed Ali for 44. After Ali’s dismissal, England batting fell like ninepins. A run later, Jadeja took his first 5-wicket haul against England by getting Stokes caught at mid-wicket by Nair.
Amit Mishra got his first victim in the second innings in the form of Liam Dawson. Dawson was bowled by Mishra for a duck. Jadeja was back in action when he took a catch on Umesh Yadav’s bowling to get rid of Adil Rashid. With 200/8, India were just two wickets away from another win against England. Jadeja came to India’s rescue again. He first got Broad out for 1 and then dismissed Jake Ball for a duck. Jos Buttler ran out of partners as he was stranded on the other end with 6 runs to his credit. India won the match by 75 runs and an innings.
England had won the toss and elected to bat first. They posted 477 in their first innings with Moeen Ali being the highest scorer (146). Chasing that mammoth total would have been a daunting task for any opposition but not India! Owing to KL Rahul’s 199 and Karun Nair’s unbeaten 303, India made 759/7 – their highest score in Test matches.
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