Twitter Reactions: Ravi Ashwin closes the game for India on Day 4

They had 258 runs in the account but Virat Kohli decided to bat again. Why not give them a follow-on and finish off the game? But the Team India skipper knew his bowlers especially the spinners needed rest, they’d be bowling bulk of the overs in the last inning and no matter if you are Ravichandran Ashwin, fingers do hurt.

The Indian batsmen walked out to bat again and comeback man Gautam Gambhir after having retired hurt on Day 3 made the most of it this morning. He settled himself in with Cheteshwar Pujara and got to his half century which was a display of some positive and aggressive cricket. He got out immediately after the fifty but Pujara carried on, he lost Kohli in due course as well but kept going.

The Saurashtra star was rather slow while scoring the first 50 runs of his knock but when he walked out after the Lunch break batted with more intent and scored his 8th Test ton in 148 balls. As soon as Pujara took off his helmet and raised his bat to celebrate the well-deserved century skipper Kohli declared the inning.

Team India had a lead of 474 runs and more than one session to have a go at the Kiwi batters. Umesh Yadav got them the first breakthrough and after starting with the pacers initially, the spinners were called in and Ashwin removed the Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson (27) to trigger the downfall. He then bowled Ross Taylor for 32, Ravindra Jadeja on the other end, dismissed Martin Guptill who was looking to stick around for 29.

Also read- IND v NZ, 3rd Test Day 4 Review: Ashwin bowls India to a whitewash win

The offie then cleaned up Luke Ronchi and Jadeja had Jimmy Neesham for naught. Mitchell Santner and Jeetan Patel were bowled by Ashwin again as he registered yet another 5-wicket haul in Tests, his 21st and made it 7 when he caught and bowled Trent Boult to wrap the game up for Team India. He registered his best bowling figures in an innings 5/59 and match figures with 13/140.

Here is how Twitter reacted:

https://twitter.com/AltCricket/status/785739928294469632

https://twitter.com/SAMPATHB24/status/785794890244337664