Ahmedabad:
There was no end to England’s batting woes against the spin duo of Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin as the side folded for 81 in its second innings to set India a target of 49 on the second day of the low-scoring day-night third Test here on Thursday.
Patel picked five wickets in the second essay, adding to his outstanding haul of six in the first innings as England collapsed.
Ashwin, on the other hand, added four more to his first-day spoils of three scalps to cross the 400-wicket mark in the longest format.
He became the fourth Indian after Anil Kumble (619), Kapil Dev (434) and Harbhajan Singh (417) to achieve the feat.
England’s scorecard bore a dismal look with all-rounder Ben Stokes 25 and Ollie Pope’s 12 being the best contributions.
Earlier, India’s first innings had folded for 145 with opener Rohit Sharma top-scoring with a 66-run knock. England captain Joe Root returned career-best figures of 5/8 for his team.
Brief Scores:
India 1st Innings: 145 all out
England: 112 and 81 in 30.4 overs (Ben Stokes 25, Axar Patel 5/32, Ravichandra Ashwin 4/48).
