AHMEDABAD, Feb 25: Left-arm spinner Axar Patel created an illusion of turn with 11 straighter deliveries that put India on the brink of the World Test Championship final with a 10-wicket demolition of England inside two days in the day-night third Test here on Thursday.
This is only the second time that a Test match in India has finished inside two days. The first one happened against Afghanistan in 2018, which was also the first-ever Test for the Afghans. In Test cricket history, this was only the 22nd Test that finished inside two days.
India now need to ensure that they don’t lose the fourth and final Test to guarantee a spot in the WTC WTC, scheduled to be played at Lord’s, London, in June.
The visitors were also knocked out of contention from the WTC final.
New Zealand have already the final. Australia are also in the race with India to reach the final.
Spinners ruled the roost in the match as 29 of the 30 wickets that fell went to spinners.
For India, left-arm spinner Patel and off-spinners Ashwin and Washington Sundar bagged 19 of the 20 England wickets on a pitch that started throwing up dust from the first session of the first day.
In only his second Test, Patel, with a match-haul of 11/70, relentlessly hit the good length area and hoodwinked England batsmen, who played for turn only to find that there was none on offer from him.
The result was their lowest total against India — 81 all out in 30.4 overs leaving the hosts with a target of 49 which they achieved with minimum fuss taking a 2-1 lead in the four-match series.
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin proved to be an ideal foil for Patel, becoming the fourth Indian bowler and second fastest in the world to complete a commendable milestone of 400 Test wickets with the dismissal of Jofra Archer.
This was after England skipper Joe Root’s fabulous career-best spell of 6.2-3-8-5 resulted in India’s dramatic collapse from 114 for 3 to 145 all out.
“The result went our way but I don’t think the quality of batting was good from either of the two teams. It was a very good batting wicket. Below-par batting by both teams but our bowlers were more effective,” said Kohli in the post-match presentation.
India lost as many as seven wickets for only 31 runs after looking solid at 114 for 3 at one stage in the game but England lost all 10 in an entire session in which no pacer was seen in action.
Ironically, it was the non-turning deliveries from Patel that had the England’s rank and file pressing the panic button as they pre-empted away turn every time.
Whether it was Zak Crawley, Jonny Bairstow or skipper Root, everyone lost the mind-game as Ashwin also joined the fun with records tumbling one after another.
“We were 70 for 2. But we didn’t really capitalise on it. 250 on that wicket would have made it different. We will come back using this hurt and come back as a better team,” a disappointed but resolute Root said.
Following the two-day finish, ICC will be watching the Motera track with a ‘Hawk Eye’ even though the debate can continue for ages whether it was the turn that did the batsmen in or the lack of it.
The turn on offer was standard for any sub-continental track and no deliveries misbehaved.
However, all eyes will now be on ICC match referee Javagal Srinath from India and his assessment of the 22-yard strip.
A case in point would be the wickets taken by the two left-arm spinners — Patel and Jack Leach.
They bowled deliveries at a speed between 88 kmph and 92 kmph with a round arm action and pitched them on good length leaving batsmen in two minds — whether to play forward or go backwards. (Agencies)
