NEW DELHI:
Kuldeep Yadav
's five-wicket haul dismantled England for 218, setting the stage for a dominant opening day in the fifth Test for India on Thursday.
Yadav claimed figures of 5-72, complemented by fellow spinner
Ravichandran Ashwin
, who, in his milestone 100th Test, secured four wickets. The spin duo played a pivotal role as India efficiently bowled out the visitors in just 57.4 overs.
Ending the day at 135-1 at the scenic Dharamsala stadium, India still trail England by 83 runs.
Captain Rohit Sharma, unbeaten on 52, and Shubman Gill, at 26, held the crease after the departure of the in-form
Yashasvi Jaiswal
, who contributed 57.
Yadav emerged as the standout performer of the day, bamboozling England with his left-arm wrist spin after the tourists had initially raced to 137-2, driven by
Zak Crawley
's impressive 79.
"I have become a lot more mature about my bowling," said 29-year-old Yadav, who made his debut at the same venue in 2017 against Australia.
"I understand my game a lot better now. I know how to read the wicket."
Once the spinners were done with England, India's batsmen took charge.
The left-handed Jaiswal looked assured until his departure as he smashed spinner Shoaib Bashir for three sixes in an over, and consolidated his position at the top of the series batting charts with 712 runs.
Bashir, a rookie off-spinner, got Jaiswal stumped to end a 104-run opening stand.
Jaiswal, 22, went past 1,000 runs in just his 16th Test innings since his debut last year, becoming the second-quickest Indian to the mark after the now-retired Vinod Kambli (14 innings).
Veteran England seamer James Anderson, 41, is just two wickets shy of becoming the third bowler to take 700 Test wickets, after Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan (800) and the late Australian great Shane Warne (708).
England were 175-3, but top batsmen Jonny Bairstow (29), Joe Root (26) and skipper Ben Stokes -- out for a duck -- all fell without the score advancing.
In all, England lost five wickets for eight runs in seven overs in that collapse.
Crawley, who raised his fourth half-century of the series in the first session, survived a few reprieves before being bowled by Yadav off a delivery that turned in sharply to hit the stumps.
Bairstow, who received his 100th cap from Root with his family by his side in the morning, joined the former captain at the crease and looked solid as he smashed Yadav for two sixes.
He went past 6,000 Test runs before Yadav got him caught behind off a googly that took the edge into the wicketkeeper's gloves. He made 29.
Ravindra Jadeja struck four balls later to trap Root lbw for 26.
Stokes was also given out lbw off Yadav for nought.
England assistant coach Marcus Trescothick praised Yadav for turning the ball like no other in the series.
"We could all see there were some deliveries bowled that had more spin than we'd seen for a while -- and more spin than anyone else has got on this pitch so far on day one," said Trescothick.
"Give him credit, he bowled well. When you get a wrist-spinner with variations... if you don't pick it, then you're in a lot of trouble."
In the first session, the openers had taken time to settle in, but Crawley soon found his groove, hitting 11 fours and a six. He put on 64 runs with Ben Duckett, who made 27.
Yadav struck in his first over as Duckett's slog got a leading edge, with Gill running backwards to take a diving catch.
India lost the opening Test but hit back to take an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the five-match series.
(With AFP inputs)
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