IND v ENG, 5th Test, Day 5 Review: Jadeja sinks England's ship with a 10 wicket haul

Ravindra Jadeja ripped through the English batting order with his career best spell of 7/48 to enable India take away the series honours with a 4-0 scoreline. England, who began on an optimistic, wobbled after the first session and were bowled out for just 207 to defeat them by an innings and 75 runs win.

The Chennai Test which offered a featherbed for the batsmen looked like a draw till the third day’s play of the game. Both the teams looked at ease batting on the surface. England posted a 400 plus batting first and India gave a firm response, accumulating a gigantic 759 runs, setting a mammoth 490 runs taget for the tourists.

The game changed its course on the final day as the deteriorated pitch assisted Indian spinners who backed by the aggressive leadership of Kohli made the entire English team return to the pavilion in the last two sessions of the match.

The MA Chidambaram Stadium was nothing like a minefield which New Zealand and South Africa had to deal with during their trip to the country. The batting show by England the first innings provided some hope that they could survive the final day and end the highly entertaining match as an even contest, with a draw.

The intent was visible in the way the overnight pair of Alastair Cook and Keaton Jennings played the first session. The spinners teased and attacked but they survived the scare leaving only two sessions to deal with all 10 wickets in hand. However, Ravindra Jadeja overwhelmed the visitors with his bowling and fielding performances to force the match in India’s favour.

1st session:

England openers Alastair Cook and Keaton Jennings successfully sailed through the opening session to put up 97/0 on the board. The Indian spinner had a sort of frustrating session where they saw many half chances and a couple of missed opportunities teasing them. The tourists are now trailing by 185 runs and have two sessions to survive.

As expected Kohli quickly turned to his lead spinners – Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja – to get breakthrough after the openers Jennings and Cook looked at ease against the fast bowlers Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma.

England resumed batting on 12/0 with a defensive approach. There wasn’t any surprise seeing them do that. The spin factor is most likely to play a huge role and they had this in mind. The effect of the spinners was quite visible with both Ashwin and Jadeja creating plenty of chances. Both of them beat the outside edge on many occasions. But, both the left-handers must be lauded for their perseverance and calmness.

Ashwin created a chance in the second over of his spell when he induced an outside edge off Cook which fell short of the slips. Cook eased the pressure in the next over with a boundary off Ishant Sharma. Jadeja also looked excited about two LBW appeal and later the short leg fielder had a tricky opportunity when Jennings jumped out of the crease and flick Mishra on the leg side.

2nd Session:

After an unsuccessful opening session, India made big inroads in the England batting order and snapped 4 wickets to reduce the tourists to 167/4 and inch towards a probable win. Life was easier in the previous session and it would have perhaps made the Englishmen believe they can survive the day.

Cook and Jennings, despite all the tense face-offs with the Indian spinners in the opening session, they somehow were able to thwart the opposition and sailed through easily. But, India made a quick comeback in this session with the help of Ravindra Jadeja who was involved in three dismissals which included three wickets off his bowling and one remarkable catch off Ishant Sharma’s bowling.

Both openers – Cook and Jennings – including Joe Root could not safeguard their wicket and were removed in quick successions. Jaddu looked in good rhythm. In the first over after the break, he went up for a raucous appeal against Cook of the 3rd ball in the 38th over before snapping the left-hander in his next over caught at leg slip. The attempt to play the ball wide on the leg side looked absolutely unnecessary and the English skipper paid the price for it.

The under pressure Jennings was the next to follow and was caught and bowled by Jadeja two overs after getting Cook. Root also could not survive for long and fell in the 50th over with Jadeja being the beneficiary again. England went to the drinks break three down after beginning the session without any damage.

India did not have to wait for long as Virat brought in fast bowlers to the attack and the bouncer strategy was into play. Sharma quickly made an impact and got the danger man Bairstow out. The credit forth dismissal, however, goes to the ‘man of the session’ Jadeja who took a breathtaking catch running backwards near the boundary ropes.

In comes Moeen Ali bringing back the memories of the kiddish tweet to Aakash Chopra. There was no change in his batting style and the flaw which Chopra pointed out was again visible as he struggled against the bouncy deliveries once again. One instance was in the 57th over when Yada hammered one short and Ali, could react in time and mistimed a pull which fell just one bounce short of the third man fielder.

Third session:

Jadeja was absolutely unplayable in the last two sessions and made a short work of the English batting order, taking four out of the 6 wickets which India needed to win the match and finish with his career-best bowling figures. On a day where Ashwin felt unlucky on more than one occasions, Jadeja emerged with a wonderful bowling performance. All courtesy to his bowling, it took only 24 overs for India to wrap up England in the final session.

Despite losing four in the second session, there was still some anticipation in the England camp. They hoped and wished that the Ali and Stokes at the crease. But, the post-tea session saw England get completely pushed out of the contest. Ali was first to depart falling to Jadeja. His wicket opened the floodgates. All the tail enders fell for single-digit scores. Stokes and Dawson followed him and fell off the bowling of Jadeja and Mishra in back to back overs. Rashid and Broad hung around for little while before losing their wickets and walking off.

Rashid was undone by Yadav while Broad became Jadeja sixth victim, helping the left arm spinner better his previous best bowling figures. England, now reduced to nine down, still had an outside chance if last man Jake Ball could have batted out the half hour’s play that was remaining with Jos Buttler. Unfortunately, Jaddu was in no mood to stretch the game any further and got Ball caught at slips just a ball after getting better of Broad.

Brief Scores:

England: 477 all out (Moeen Ali 146; Ravindra Jadeja 3/106) & 207 all out (Cook 47; R Jadeja 7/48)

India: 759/7d (Karun Nair 303*; Stuart Broad 2/80)

Man of the Match: Karun Nair