Twitter Reactions: Ravi Ashwin delights Chepauk crowd with a stunning century in the second innings

India have almost batted England out of the second Test in Chennai. On the third day, the local hero Ravi Ashwin delighted the crowd at the Chepauk with his sensational batting and scored a stunning hundred, his fifth in Tests and first against England. Mohammed Siraj did a terrific job to hang in and let his partner get to the milestone in front of his family and the almost 14 thousand fans.

Ashwin came out to bat when India were reeling at 106/6 on the third morning and had already five wickets with skipper Virat Kohli fighting it out at the other end. He played his shots soon to force England to set defensive fields and then rotated the strike nicely adding 96 runs for the seventh wicket with Kohli.

Ravi Ashwin looked extremely comfortable and despite the fact that the ball was turning, he never looked flustered. Rather he reached the pitch of the ball and stroked some eyecatching shots giving a chance to the crowd to enjoy.

Ravi Ashwin in control despite Kohli got out

Virat Kohli was also looking good in the middle but got out for 62 and this is when Ravi Ashwin decided to take matters into his own hands. He had just crossed the 50-run mark then and even though Kuldeep Yadav got out, India didn’t declare giving a realistic chance to Ashwin to get to his fifth Test ton.

And the Indian off-spinner made sure that he made the opportunity count first stitching 27 runs with Ishant Sharma and then frustrating England with the 10th wicket partnership with Siraj. In the process, Ravi Ashwin found gaps artistically literally playing with the opposition fielders. When the going got tough in the 90s, he launched Moeen Ali into the stands to reach 97.

In the same over, he placed the ball through the covers to run two and then luck favoured him as the top-edge went past the short third man fielder to bring up his ton. The crowd and his family stood up in applause for Ravi Ashwin as the man celebrated the milestone to the fullest as well. Interestingly, Mohammed Siraj also was so happy after his teammate reached his ton.

Ashwin eventually got out for 106 as India were bundled out for 286 in the 86th over of the innings to set a mammoth target of 482 runs for England.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: