Southampton: A listless India crashed to a humiliating 266-run defeat against England in the third Test after an abject batting surrender allowed the hosts to level the five-match series 1-1 here on Thursday.
Needing to bat out the whole day with six wickets in hand in order to save the match, India crumbled in the first session, getting bundled out for a meagre 178 in 66.4 overs in a completely lopsided contest at the Ageas Bowl.
It was one of the biggest defeats for India in terms of runs on English soil but not their worst, having lost a Test match by a mammoth 319 runs in Nottingham during the last tour in 2011.
For England, the victory meant an end to a winless streak of 10 Test matches starting from the Ashes in Australia.
To add insult to injury, it was part-time off-spinner Moeen Ali who bamboozled the lower-order batsmen with his career-best haul of 6-67 in 20.4 overs.
Pacer James Anderson provided the first breakthrough in the morning when he had Rohit Sharma (6) nibbling at an away-going delivery to be caught by wicketkeeper Jos Buttler.
MS Dhoni (6) couldn’t replicate the resilience of the first innings as he was again a victim of an outswinger, edging to the keeper.
Although Ajinkya Rahane waged a lone battle at the other end, he could do little as he saw wickets falling like nine pins at the other end.
Ali then got into the action as he made the ball turn and jump out of the rough as well as bowling classic off-breaks. He cleaned up Ravindra Jadeja (15) with a delivery that pitched on the rough and came in to hit the off-stump.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar got out to a bat-pad catch with a delivery that spun in after pitching.
Ali’s maiden five-for was completed when a typical off-break cleaned up Mohammed Shami.
Rahane duly reached his second half-century of the match by hitting a brilliant square drive off Chris Woakes with No. 11 Pankaj Singh for company.
Pankaj was finally cleaned up by Ali for his sixth scalp as he played inside the line.
The two teams will now travel to Manchester for the fourth Test to be played from August 7 at Old Trafford in Manchester.
Dhoni blamed his batsmen for the “soft dismissals” that saw them suffer defeat and said that India would need to discuss their four-bowler strategy ahead of the fourth match.
Asked about the decision to go with four bowlers in the third Test, Dhoni said: “The reason for using four bowlers is the we never used the fifth (in the second Test). We just used him for 10 and 8 overs. With Shikhar and Vijay and Rohit around we thought we could do it.
“But it’s the bowling we need to improve and hit the top of off stump. We will have to think about the four-bowler strategy. We can say the extra batsman didn’t score, but then again the extra bowler didn’t pick up wickets. So we have to discuss a lot and decide on the basis of the pitch.
“I don’t think we played good cricket. We played the fast bowlers well. Moeen (Ali) bowled well, but we also allowed him to bowl well,” the skipper added.
England skipper Alastair Cook said he was happy that they dominated all the sessions in the third Test.
“Happy is the word, not relieved. We pretty much won every single session and that credit to the guys,” Cook said after the match.
“It’s a great win, we wanted to get on that wicket first and to get 570 is a great start. We bowled well and batted quickly and knocked em over again,” he added.
Anderson, who marked his birthday with a five-wicket haul on Wednesday, said: “Lovely, it was a good day yesterday, We just wanted to finish them off early and get out there and bat again.
“I don’t think we lost a session in the game. Fantastic performance through the five days.”
The 32-year-old from Lancashire, who took five wickets in the first session before scalping two more in India’s second essay, said it was the batsmen who set the game for them after scoring 569 in the first innings. (PTI)
