India vs England, 5th Test, Day 5, Tea report: Ravindra Jadeja’s heroics turns match in hosts’ favour

The second session went in the favour of India as they picked up four wickets after lunch against England on Day Five of the fifth Test at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai.

Ravindra Jadeja was elemental in all the four dismissals © Getty Images

The second session went in the favour of India as they picked up four wickets after lunch against England on Day Five of the fifth Test at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai. The hosts were wicketless in the first session and the opening pair of Keaton Jennings and Alastair Cook put up a 97-run partnership going into lunch. India pulled off a good comeback into the game, breaking the partnership soon after play resumed and not letting any other big partnership form between the middle-order batsmen. Ravindra Jadeja was instrumental in all the four dismissals. Jadeja resumed bowling after lunch. India took the first review of the day right after lunch for a Jadeja delivery. He was quite confident and loud appeal came from Parthiv from behind the stumps as well. The delivery was pitched outside off-stump but it went down the leg, missing the stumps by quite a good margin and India lost a review. Cook and Jennings completed 100-run partnership, which is only the second 100-run stand between the England openers out of the 10 innings in this tour.

India got their first breakthrough with Jadeja picking up the wicket of Cook. It was a regulation wide ball in limited-overs cricket and even pitched outside leg. Cook tried to play it fine using the pace of the delivery, and played it straight to KL Rahul at leg-slip. It was not the wisest of shot selections from an experienced campaigner like Cook. Cook was denied his half-century for just a solitary run as Jadeja trapped Cook for the sixth time in the tour. Cook thus became the only batsmen to have scored 49 five times in Test cricket.

FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: India vs England, 5th Test at Chennai

With Cook’s dismissal, Joe Root joined Jennings at the crease. The latter got to his half-century soon after, scoring his second 50-plus score on the tour since the century on his debut. However, he was soon sent back by Jadeja for 54 runs. Jennings came down the pitch to pick the good-length ball and the extra bounce beat him as he played it straight back to the bowler. The dismissal brought Moeen Ali at the crease and Virat Kohli made no mistake bringing Umesh Yadav for him. Moeen has had troubles with short-pitched deliveries and Umesh did exactly what the captain wanted of him, keeping it short and varying the bounce to Moeen.

Jadeja struck again. Root missed a sweep and the full-length delivery angled in and straightened. This was the second time in the match, Root departed while playing a sweep and after Indians had reviewed. England lost 3 wickets with 126 runs on the board.

Kohli brought in Ishant Sharma for a couple of overs and the ploy worked. India got the fourth wicket in Jonny Bairstow. Ishant went for a fuller delivery and Bairstow tried to play it over fine leg. He failed to open the face of the bat and it rather went up to Jadeja at mid-wicket who took a stunner running back towards the rope. Jadeja did not take his eyes off the ball and gripped the ball safely while maintaining his balance not to touch the ropes and Bairstow was on his way scoring a solitary run.

Bairstow and Root had the opportunity to surpass Michael Vaughan’s tally of 1,482 runs, the highest by a English batsman in a calendar year.

Ishant bowled well and kept on bowling short-pitched ones to Moeen. The batsman was beaten with the bounce on several occasions but Ishant remained unlucky not to have him. India majorly tried to target Moeen, who was living dangerously at the crease. Both Ishant and Umesh made the batsman look clumsy and confused. Ben Stokes at the other end showed some defend and kept the scorecard going by rotating strike with singles. Moeen, however, played a couple of good-looking shots as he placed an Umesh Yadav delivery beautifully through cover point. He remained lucky with his shots as well, top edging while sweeping Ashwin’s delivery to square leg.