India Vs England: India Defeated England In The Fourth Test, They Won The Test Series 3-1
Friyana Munshi
New Delhi, March 6, 2021: India defeated England by an inning and 25 runs in the fourth Test match played at the Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium in Ahmedabad. The English batsman looked helpless against the bowling of Akshar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin; in the second innings, the entire team was all out with a score of 135 runs. Akshar and Ashwin took five wickets each in the second inning. With this victory, India has won the four-match and the Test series by 3–1 as well as made it to the finals of the World Test Championship.
India was all out after scoring 365 runs in the first innings and got a strong lead of 160 runs over England. In the second innings, the England batsmen were defeated by Akshar and Ashwin. The team was all out for 135 runs. On the favorable pitch of the Narendra Modi Stadium, Akshar took five wickets for 48 runs in 24 overs and Ashwin took five wickets for 47 runs in 22.5 overs and took a total of eight wickets in the match. Ashwin took 30 wickets in this series and also scored 180 runs including a century. Meanwhile, Akshar made a mark with his performance while making his debut in Test cricket in this series.
Except for England captain Joe Root (30), no batsman could face the Indian bowlers. Dominic Sibley (3), Jack Crawley (5), and Johnny Bairstow (0) did not look comfortable while Ben Stokes (0) was unable to anticipate the bounce of the ball and was dismissed after playing the wrong sweep shot. England’s last wicket fell in the form of Dan Lawrence, who was against Ashwin’s ball, scoring 50 runs with the help of six fours in 96 balls.
Earlier, Washington Sundar, who had a matured batting performance at number eight, missed the first Test century by four runs. The 21-year-old batsman scored 96 off 74 balls, however, he was left all alone at the other end as the last three wickets fell quickly. India lost the last three wickets within five balls. Ben Stokes took four wickets for 89 runs in 27.4 overs.
Like his former Under 19 compatriot Rishabh Pant, Sundar was on his way to a century, adding 106 runs for the eighth wicket with Akshar Patel and dodging England’s plans to prevent India from taking a huge boost. Akshar scored 43 off 97 balls which included a six off Jack Leach. Both batsmen continued to increase the run rate by running one and two runs instead of taking a risky shot. Both rotated the strike brilliantly and did not let the England bowlers put pressure on them. For England, James Anderson took three wickets for 44 runs in 25 overs. England was all out after scoring 205 runs in the first innings.
