R Ashwin, the man with the kind of skill that makes even the best batsman in the world sometimes look like an amateur, brought all that talent into play on day five morning, slicing through England in such delectable fashion, to give India a smashing innings victory. The win also put India 3-0 up, which means they have sealed the five-match series with a game to play.
"Let's see off the first half hour and then take it from there" would have been the plan for England to start the final day, and that would have been a conceivable plan too considering Jonny Bairstow, on 50, and Jos Buttler (6 n.o., 17b), who struck a nice half-century in the first innings, were at the crease.
However, when you come up against a bowler of Ashwin's ilk, all plans usually go out of the window, especially on the final day.
The off-spinner is an artist with the ball, the kind who would fetch millions with each piece had he been doing it with a paint and brush. The manner in which he brushed Bairstow out of the pitch was fantastic.
In a wicket that was similar to the one when he got AB De Villiers out last year, Ashwin produced another magic carom ball, one that pitched on leg and spun like a leg-spinner to completely befuddle the batsman and trap him in front.
Bairstow (51, 107b, 2x4) did not pick the carrom ball, played well inside the line of the ball and was struck on off-stump. India still needed Bruce Oxenford to give it out on the field, because they had no reviews remaining and thankfully, for the home team, the umpire raised his finger. Bairstow, knowing he had no choice, asked for the review, with the ball-tracker showing it would have hit flush on off-stump.
An over later, Ashwin produced the classical off-spinner – flighted, drifting away, and then turning after pitching to go through the bat and pad of Chris Waokes (0, 6b) and hit the top of the stumps.
Adil Rashid (2, 7b) was the next to fall, holing out at deep midwicket, while trying to take Ashwin on, before James Anderson (2, 6b), who exchanged a few words with Virat Kohli – not surprising after what the England fast bowler had to say about the India captain on Sunday – gave a nice, easy catch to Umesh Yadav, allowing Ashwin to take his sixth wicket of the innings and 12th of the match, which also helped the off-spinner finish with the best ever figures for an Indian at the Wankhede.
Now, Chennai awaits for Ashwin, Kohli and the No.1 Test team in the world to end the series in perfect fashion.
Scores: First innings: England: 400 all out in 130.1 overs.
India: 631 all out in 182.3 overs.
Second innings: England: 195 all out in 55.3 overs.
Overnight score: 182/6 in 47.3 overs.
Result: India won by an innings and 36 runs.
Series: India lead 3-0 with one match to go.
Bowling: Second innings: India: Bhuvneshwar Kumar 4-1-11-1; Umesh Yadav 3-0-10-0; Ravindra Jadeja 22-3-63-2; R Ashwin 20.3-3-55-6; Jayant Yadav 6-0-39-1.
Fall of wickets: Second innings: England: 1/1, Keaton Jennings (0.2 overs); 43/2, Alastair Cook (11.5 overs); 49/3, Moeen Ali (13.2 overs); 141/4, Joe Root (34.4 overs); 180/5, Ben Stokes (43.3 overs); 182/6, Jake Ball (47.3 overs); 185/7, Jonny Bairstow (50 overs); 189/8, Chris Woakes (51.5 overs); 193/9, Adil Rashid (53.4 overs); 195/10, James Anderson (55.3 overs).
