Twitter Reactions: Indian batsmen gasp for breath as England bag a massive win at Chepauk

A lot was said about England not showing intent and declaring early in the second innings. Many felt the visitors were scared as India would chase down the total. But as it happened on the fifth day, England comfortably managed to skittle the home side with a lot of overs in hand and go 1-0 up in the series. James Anderson put up a special performance in the morning after which the rest of the bowlers also put their hand up to seal a memorable win.

India resumed the day with 381 runs adrift of the target but it was all about playing out 90 overs to save the Test. The fans and experts were hoping for the team to repeat their heroics from Sydney and Brisbane. But the pitch had certainly deteriorated a lot and it proved to be an uphill task for India. Cheteshwar Pujara was the first to go as Jack Leach’s delivery spit from a good length ball to catch the bat’s edge and rest in the hands of the slip fielder.

Shubman Gill was adventurous in his approach going for runs and it looked while he lasted scoring an impressive half-century. James Anderson castled him with a beautiful reverse swinging delivery and followed it up with yet another ripper to send Ajinkya Rahane’s off-stump for a walk in the same over. Soon Rishabh Pant and Washington Sundar followed as India collapsed from 92/2 to 117/6 dumping all the hopes of a draw.

Virat Kohli flights alone with a 72-run knock

At the other end, Virat Kohli was going strong even as the wickets tumbled around him. Whenever England’s spinners faltered in their lines, he took the toll of them hitting boundaries and in the process, got to his 27th half-century as well. After wickets fell in a heap, he stitched a decent partnership with Ravi Ashwin to keep England at bay but the duo delayed only the inevitable.

Ashwin got out edging one behind off Jack Leach while Kohli got a low grubber from Ben Stokes as India were soon bundled out for 192 runs losing the game by 227 runs. The Indian skipper scored 72 runs off 104 balls hitting nine fours but none of the other batsmen stuck it out with him making the task even tougher and close to impossible.

For England, James Anderson picked three wickets while Leach recovered from the innings hammering to scalp four with Jofra Archer, Stokes and Bess accounting for one each. This is a massive win for England and now India will have to do all the running in the series to keep themselves alive in the World Test Championship.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: