Right after India defeated England by 246 runs in the second Test here on Monday to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series, a few excited ball boys went up to the pitch scratching their heads. They were wondering how Ravichandran Ashwin & Co had managed to bowl a controlled line on such a worn out and cracked surface.
The boys in whites discussed the ACA-VDCA Stadium wicket like experts only to come to a conclusion that it was the brilliance of Indian spinners which secured their team a seemingly easy win.
England, chasing an improbable 405 to win, crumbled against Virat Kohli's team, adding just 71 runs to their overnight total of 87 for two.
Ashwin, with three wickets, once again was the led bowlers along with Ravindra Jadeja (2/35) Jayant Yadav (3/30) and Mohammed Shami (2/30), who accounted for the English batsmen in two hours and 20 minutes.
The fifth day event unfolded on expected lines.
With opener Haseeb Hameed and captain Alastair Cook out on fourth day, grabbing the next eight wickets was almost going to be a formality for the Indian bowlers. And the visitors eventually lost eight wickets for 71 runs, ending the game 20 minutes after lunch.
It was a typical fifth day Indian track. There was wear and tear on the wicket with footmarks around the batting area.
England batsmen were cautious a few overs into the game. Joe Root was dropped too by captain Virat Kohli, at leg slip, while trying to flick Ashwin off his pads.
That incident was enough to indicate that England had to perform a miracle to survive the whole day against Indian spinners.
A couple of overs later, Ben Duckett ran out of patience. Struggling to block the deliveries, he chose to go aggressive against Ashwin, by attempting a sweep. However, it turned out to be a wrong decision as the ball got the extra bounce and spin to kiss his glove and go into the hands of wicket keeper Wriddhiman Saha.
Moeen Ali and Ben Stokes followed him soon. Jadeja got hold of Ali while it was Yadav who bowled a gem to dismiss the latter.
The Haryana offie bowled flat with the drift that caught Stokes on the backfoot only to turn late and knock off the off stump.
Even as England's wicket kept falling, their mainstay Joe Root held one end up and looked solid. It was too big a battle to fight alone even if for one of the best batsmen in the world.
The fight finally ended for Root when he succumbed to a sharp in-swinger from Shami that trapped him plumb before the wicket, ending England's every chance for a comeback into the game.
Steaming in from the Dr Vizzy End, Shami beat the batsman with swing and pace. He got his second in the form of a usually stubborn Adil Rashid, before umpires called lunch. England were 142/7.
Post lunch, it took just 20 minutes for the bowlers to finish off the tail with Yadav getting Stuart Broad and James Anderson for his best figures, after Ashwin had sent southpaw Zafar Ansari back for a nought.
Having put up such a show here, it will boost India's confidence before they go for the next Test in Mohali.
