India defeated England by 10 wickets in the third Test in Ahmedabad on Thursday to take a 2-1 lead in the four-match series. The pink ball, day-night game at the newly-built Motera Stadium ended inside two days as Virat Kohli and Co put in a dominating performance with the ball.
The stars of the show for the hosts were spinners Axar Patel, who bagged 11 wickets in the match, and Ashwin Ravichandran, who became the second-fastest to get to 400 wickets in Test cricket.
India started day two of the Test at 99/3 in their first inning but were bowled out for just 145 as England captain Joe Root picked his first five-wicket haul in Tests with some brilliant off-spin bowling.
However, India bounced back with the ball as Axar and Ashwin ran riot to bowl the visitors out for just 81 runs in their second innings. Set a target of 81, India finished off the game in quick time with openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill remaining unbeaten.
“The result went our way. But I don’t think the quality of batting was up to standard by both teams,” said Kohli in the post-match presentation ceremony.
“It was a very good pitch to bat on in the first innings. The ball came on nicely. It was just a bizarre Test match. I don’t think I have ever been part of something like this where things have moved so quickly. I think we all need to stand up and take notice of what Ashwin has achieved. I told him I am going to call you Leg from now on. A modern day legend.”
Here’s how Twitter reacted to the result:
“This might be the most bonkers morning’s cricket ever” wrote Gary Lineker.
“It is the 5th time since 2016 that England have been bowled out in a session” wrote Harsha Bhogle.
“IMHO, it’s a bad pitch not coz it has helped one side more than the other but coz one aspect of the game has looked so terribly meek in front of the other. The opposite of this isn’t a green track at Lord’s but a placid Rajkot track where only 2 innings get played over 5 days” a cricket fan posted.
“I wonder what newbies to Test cricket are thinking right now?” wrote Isha Guha.
