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With Ashwin's 'WOW' record, India finishes in style: Let's look at a slew of new milestones!

By alagu, 25 February, 2021
India, England, Cricket, Ashwin

India has ended its campaign with the magnificent victory against England in the third Test match that is being held at Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium in Ahmedabad, which is the world's largest cricket stadium on the scale of occupancy. The trajectory of India's remarkable victory was built by the impressive bowling of Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel. 

In what has become the dominance of spinners, Ashwin and Axar Patel have glittered in the third match and built a strong momentum to win the match and to lead the four-match test series by 2-1.  England has been on the Indian tour to play four tests, five T20s, and three ODIs. While the first two Test matches were won by both the teams with won each, the third match has been hosted by Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The match began on Wednesday and the visitors had won the toss and elected to bat first. 

While England was bowled out for 112 runs in the 1st innings, India had ended its campaign for 145 runs with the lead of 33 runs. The visitors had begun their second innings only to witness a flawed batting and recorded one of the lowest scores in its history. The host kept the command over the game and with the excellent bowling partnership, Ashwin and Axar Patel had blown off the visitors by restricting them from scoring big. The visitors were whirled by the spin-duo and England was losing wickets at regular intervals. 

Eight English players were dismissed before they score above ten runs individually and of these eight players, four were dismissed for a duck and Ben Stokes was the only player to score high for the visitors and he scored 25 runs and the rest of them had delivered a flawed batting and eventually ended up putting only 81 runs on board. On India's side, Axar Patel had got five wickets, which is his third five-wicket haul, while Ashwin has got four wickets and the rest was taken by another spinner Washington Sundar. 

With four wickets, Ashwin has set a 'WOW' record and he is the first Indian bowler to achieve this record - Ashwin has become the second-fastest bowler to pick up 400 Test wickets. He has achieved this milestone in 77th Test while Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralidharan had taken 400 wickets in 72 Test matches. While becoming the first Indian fastest bowler to take 400 wickets, Ashwin has become the fourth Indian bowler to pick up 400 Test wickets after Kapil Dev, Anil Kumble, and Harbhajan Singh. 

Ashwin has been in the rain of wishes for the historical feat and after bowling out the visitors for 81 runs, India has got an easy target of 49 runs. Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill had opened the innings to chase the target and they had hit the winning runs in the 8th over of the chase and India has won the third Test match by ten wickets, which has become one of the remarkable victories of India. With this victory, India has taken a lead over the series by 2-1 and the fourth and final match of the series will also be hosted by this stadium which will begin on March 4. 

Axar Patel was picked as the Man of the Match as he has got 11 wickets in total. Speaking at the post-match presentation, Axar said, "When it happens, it feels so easy. I am not thinking much. I want to continue this form. I am happy that if I am not contributing with the bat, I am doing it with the ball. I would want this wicket to remain the same for the final test as well as I am picking up wickets". 

Virat Kohli said, "To be honest, I don't think the quality of batting was up to standards. We were 100 for 3 and then got bowled out for less than 150. It was just the oddball turning and it was a good wicket to bat in the first innings. I don't know what is it with Gujarat and producing so many left-arm spinners. You just cannot sweep this guy (Axar Patel) but you also can't keep defending as he would just keep bowling to you. If the wicket has something in it, Axar is very lethal. As a captain, I am so pleased he is on my team. We have to be ready for the hard grind. Few days extra off with a hectic schedule is welcoming". 

With the impressive victory, Virat Kohli has become the most successful Indian Test captain at home as he has captained India in 32 home tests of which the team had won 22 matches. The victory had also taken India on the top of the ICC's points table in Test ratings and it also has become India's quickest victory in Test cricket in terms of balls bowled. The victory has presented a slew of milestones for India - Ashwin's 400th wicket, Kohli's tag of the most successful Indian captain, Hitting the top of the table and recording the quickest victory in its history. 

 

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