India remain on course to strike first blood in the four-match Test series after they took the remaining five English wickets to go into lunch, requiring 77 runs to win the first Test, currently being played at Ahmedabad, November 19, 2012.
Despite their evident improvement against spin, which saw them overhaul the home side’s 330-run lead, England still had a monumental task to overcome on an increasingly deteriorating Motera track.
They had given their fans hope of a spirited comeback, but all was put to rest by Pragyan Ojha, who accounted for the overnight duo of Alastair Cook (176) and Matt Prior (91) to leave his side in pole position.
Prior added seven more to his individual score before giving a return catch, while Cook’s marathon knock ended with a ball that finally breached his defences. At both occasions, the ball had kept considerably low, making it tough for the batters to force the play. All in all, their stand of 157 had provided some consolation for the following their embarrassing capitulation in the first innings.
Like the previous day, the wickets fell in cluster. Stuart Broad was the next to depart as Umesh Yadav kept his good form intact by accepting a easy return catch to leave the batting side at 378 for 8.
Graeme Swann and Tim Bresnan offered brief resistance with a 28-wun stand. Swann opened his account with a well timed six off Ojha before hitting a couple of confident boundaries. However, his desire to take on the Indian spinners eventually proved fatal after he failed to execute a switch hit to hand Ashwin his first wicket of the second innings.
The premier spinner went the entire fourth day wicketless and seemed grateful after getting off the mark on the final day. The last wicket fell to Zaheer Khan, who accounted for Bresnan after the batter gave a straight forward catch to short cover.
The tourists ended on 406, just 77 runs ahead, and as expected spin came to their demise. Ojha was at the centre of it as the left-arm spinner finished with impressive match figures of 9 for 165.
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