India's capitulation complete
This was the sort of day when you had to suspend belief, especially if you had come through the turnstiles expecting a bit of fight from India. First, it gave England an hour of batting practice, conceding a whopping 101 in 11.3 overs. Joe Root, unbeaten on 92 overnight, romped to an unbeaten 149, an effort that would win him the man of the match award.
Chris Jordan, unsure of his place after an underwhelming display in Southampton, finished with 4 for 18 as India was skittled for 94 in 29.2 overs on the third day of the final Test at The Oval on Sunday (August 17).
Trailing by 338 after the first innings as England stretched its overnight 385 for 7 to 486, India thus slumped to an innings and 244-run drubbing, its third heaviest defeat ever, thus surrendering the series 3-1.
Both openers were back in the pavilion before lunch. M Vijay, whose series trajectory has mirrored India’s steep descent since Lord’s, was undone by a James Anderson delivery that swung back to rap the pads. Gautam Gambhir, who barely managed to put bat to ball, was then run out by a direct hit from Chris Woakes at midwicket, after setting off for a quick single.
The shower that followed Gambhir to the pavilion meant a 50-minute delay and on resumption, one batsman after another returned to the pavilion in quick succession.
Cheteshwar Pujara, who finished the series with 222 runs, got a beautiful ball from Anderson, one that held its line before kissing the edge. Ajinkya Rahane, whose century had set up a Test win in London a month earlier, then fenced at a length ball from Stuart Broad and looked back to see Gary Ballance dive full length to his left from third slip to pouch a stunner an inch off the ground.
MS Dhoni’s batting had been one of the few redeeming features of India's recent batting capitulations, but on this occasion he didn’t even trouble the scorers, as an inside edge on to the thigh pad off Woakes looped up to short-leg.
Virat Kohli had struck a couple of fine drives and seen Woakes put down a difficult return catch, but his dismissal for 20 summed up India's poor tour. Jordan found away movement, and Kohli’s attempt to clip the ball through midwicket flew off the edge to Alastair Cook at first slip.
Jordan ran through the tail even as Varun Aaron ran himself out, Moeen Ali effecting the dismissal from deep square-leg.
Earlier, Root hadn’t dawdled while in sight of three figures and a clip through midwicket took him to the landmark off just 135 balls. What followed was just carnage. Jordan was caught behind off Ishant Sharma, but Broad came out and started swinging at nearly everything.
Anderson got a rough decision soon after drinks, giving R Ashwin a third wicket for the innings, but by then, the lead was 338 and Indian thoughts had long since turned to rain and survival. The rain did come down, briefly. But England became the first team since Don Bradman’s Australia in 1936-37 to win the last three Tests of a series after falling behind.
Source: icc-cricket.com
