This was England’s first three-day victory over India since 1967 at Edgbaston. Most interestingly it came without the services of Stuart Broad in India’s second innings, after he had been forced to retire hurt after a blow to the face from a Varun Aaron bouncer which squeezed between his grille and helmet.
India’s woeful batting display continued on the third afternoon, significantly worse than their opening-day when visitors were bowled all-out for 152 because conditions on the third day were not as taxing, meant India subsided to 161 and handed England victory by an innings and 54 runs despite Broad being in hospital with a suspected broken nose and an ill James Anderson.
However, it took a little longer for India’s collapse to set in than the first innings – Chris Woakes claimed his first wicket of the series when he trapped M Vijay lbw before tea, before Gautam Gambhir and Cheteshwar Pujara reached 53 for 1 – but their demise to 66 for 6 was in many ways more extraordinary given England were a bowler down, the sun was out and the early new ball had been weathered.
Moeen Ali was the star of England’s second inning. He twirled and spun his way to 4 for 39, taking his series tally to 19.
Stuart Broad, who took 6 wickets conceding 25 runs 13.4 overs in the first inning was declared as the man of the match.
With this convincing victory England now leads the 5-Match series by 2-1. The final test will played from August 15 to August 19.
The match stats are as follows,
India – 1st Inning
M Vijay 0 , G Gambhir 4, CA Pujara 0, V Kohli 0, AM Rahane 24, MS Dhoni 71, RA Jadeja 0, R Ashwin 40, B Kumar 0, VR Aaron 1*, Pankaj Singh 0
Total: 152-10, 46.4 overs (3.25 runs per over)
India – 2nd Inning
M Vijay 18 , G Gambhir 18, CA Pujara 17, V Kohli 7, AM Rahane 1, MS Dhoni 27, RA Jadeja 4, R Ashwin 46*, B Kumar 10, VR Aaron 9, Pankaj Singh 0
Total: 161-10, 43 overs (3.74 runs per over)
England 1st innings
AN Cook (Captain)17, SD Robson 6, GS Ballance 37, IR Bell 58, CJ Jordan 13, JE Root 77, MM Ali 13, JC Buttler 70, CR Woakes 26*, SCJ Broad (retired hurt) 12, JM Anderson12.
Total: 367-10, 105.3 overs (3.47 runs per over)
