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Ash rocks at home: Ashwin's remarkable feat builds momentum to India to retaliate the visitors!

By alagu, 15 February, 2021
India, England, Cricket, Chennai

Ashwin's splendid delivery at the crease both in bat and ball had driven the Indian team to build strong momentum and put the team in a commanding position in the second test match against England in Chennai. One of the remarkable performances from the all-rounder, who is a native of Chennai, had revived the team and imposed a target of 482 to the visitors. 

On the scale of probability, India is given a high chance of winning the match and leveling the series to 1-1 in the four-match test series. While the English visitors had defeated the host in the first match in Chennai, India has brought the second match under its full control by delivering outstanding performances in all the departments. Virat Kohli has won the toss and decided to bat first. Though India had a flawed opening, the team sharply raised towards a big score. With an unbeatable century from Rohit Sharma and excellent batting from Rahane, the Indian team had scored 329 runs by losing all the wickets in its first innings. 

England came to batting but the visitors were stumbled by the Indian bowling line-up. Though Ben Foakes tried to put a lead, all other English batsmen had a walk-show to and from the pavilion at a regular interval. Ashwin was the star bowler for India as he had taken five wickets and played an important role in containing the visitors. Armed by the other key bowlers like Ishant Sharma, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, and Mohammed Siraj, India highly restricted England from scoring big. No English batsmen scored 50 and the visitors ended their campaign by losing all the wickets for 134 runs.

On India's side, Ashwin has got five wickets and the feat has become his 29th five-wicket haul in the test matches, Ishant Sharma and Axar Patel had got two wickets each while Mohammed Siraj had got one wicket. As England was bowled out for 134 runs, India opened its second innings with a strong lead of 195 runs. The host got a decent opening but the team's momentum was greatly built by Ravichandran Ashwin and skipper Virat Kohli. They two had delivered an excellent partnership with Ashwin scoring a remarkable century. 

Taking the team to a big lead, Ashwin has scored his fifth Test century. He had scored 106 runs off 148 balls and got dismissed after being bowled out by Olly Stone. Kohli was dismissed by Moeen Ali for 62 runs off 149 balls. With the complete show of an all-rounder, Ashwin's ton had taken the team to end with a strong lead. At the end of the second innings, India was bowled out for 286 runs and the host had given a target of 482 runs for England and while the test has got two days left, it has been predicted that India will win the second match. 

Ashwin's century has become the fifth test century and the first against England. The last four centuries of Ashwin were against West Indies. Ashwin had reached his century against England on Monday in 134 balls with 14 fours and a six. His century was also made possible by two lives from the visitors after Ben Stokes and Ben Foakes had dropped the catch each from Stuart Broad's spell. With a remarkable century and a five-wicket haul, Ashwin has achieved a remarkable record of scoring a century and taking five wickets in a match for the third time. 

The Indian team hadn't disappointed the fans who had arrived in Chennai Stadium after a long time amid COVID-19 protocols. Ashwin was a gamechanger for the match and had put the team in a commanding position against England. The third day of the third match had concluded when the visitors had lost three wickets in chasing the target of 482. 

At the time of writing the content, England has scored 53 runs and lost three wickets and 429 runs away from the target. England's Rory Burns was dismissed by Ashwin for 25 runs while Dom Sibley and Jack Leach were dismissed by Axar Patel for 3 and 0 runs respectively. Dan Lawrence and Joe Root are on the crease and the visitors would resume their play on Tuesday, the fourth day of the match, to add 429 more runs to win the match. 

 

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