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OMANDAILYOBSERVER
22 TUESDAY
l DECEMBER 13 l 2016
ASHWIN LEADS INDIA TO
SERIES WIN OVER ENGLAND
NEXT
CHANGE
India’s Ravichandran Ashwin and team-mates appeal for an leg before wicket decision. — Reuters
MUMBAI: Off-spinner
Ravichandran Ashwin blew away
England’s lower order resistance
to spin India to a crushing seriesclinching
victory on the final day
of the fourth test at the Wankhede
Stadium on Monday.
The touring side, who resumed
the final day on 182 for six, were
only able to add 13 runs to their
total as Ashwin (6-55) took all four
remaining wickets in a little more
than half an hour and the hosts won
by an innings and 36 runs.
The five-wicket haul was the
24th for the world’s top-ranked test
bowler and his seventh 10-wicket
haul, after the 30-year-old also took
six wickets in England’s first innings,
inspired India to an unassailable 3-0
lead.
England had beaten India in
their last three test series including
a 2-1 triumph on their last visit to
the South Asian country in 2012 but
the tourists have been thoroughly
outplayed by the hosts since drawing
the opening match in Rajkot.
“This series win is probably the
sweetest of all we’ve won so far
in the past 14-15 months,” India
captain Virat Kohli said at the
presentation following his side’s fifth
series victory in a row. “It could not
get any better.
“To win at Wankhede, going
three-nil against a top quality side
that has beaten us convincingly last
two times, it feels really good.”
Trailing by 49 runs entering the
final day, England’s hopes of making
India bat again rested on a pair of
wicketkeeper-batsmen — Jonny
Bairstow, who was unbeaten on 50
overnight, and Jos Buttler.
Bairstow, however, misread
Ashwin’s ‘carrom’ ball, a fingerspinner
delivered with the knuckle,
to be struck in front of the wicket
after adding just a run to his
overnight score and was unable to
overturn the leg before decision on
review.
ANGRY EXCHANGE
Ashwin then claimed a wicket in
each of his next three overs to bring
about a quick end to proceedings as
England’s lower order capitulated
meekly.
There were some angry
words exchanged between James
Anderson and the India players
when the England number 11
walked in to bat with the umpires
forced to intervene to prevent the
incident from escalating further.
On what has been a generally
dismal tour for England, they also
picked up an unwelcome statistic of
becoming just the third side in test
history to compile 400 in the first
innings and still lose by an innings.
“Historically on this ground 400
is a good score in the first innings
and in the second innings, we had
our chances,” rued England captain
Alastair Cook. “We’ve just not taken
those chances.
“We were in the game for three
days but not good enough to take
those opportunities and that’s what
cost us.”
Ashwin, who has won the man of
the series awards in each of India’s
last four test series, took his tally to
27 wickets from the four matches
against England.
Man of the match Kohli, who hit
235 in India’s massive first innings
total of 631 for his third double
century of the year, leads the runscoring
list with 640 at an average
of 128.
The fifth and final test will be
played in Chennai from Friday.
— Reuters
SCOREBOARD
England first innings: 400
India first innings: 631
England second innings (O/n:
182/6):
A Cook lbw Jadeja -------------------------------18
K Jennings lbw B Kumar -----------------------0
J Root lbw Yadav ---------------------------------77
M Ali c Vijay b Jadeja ----------------------------0
J Bairstow lbw R Ashwin ---------------------51
B Stokes c Vijay b R Ashwin -----------------18
J Ball c P Patel b R Ashwin --------------------2
J Buttler (not out) ----------------------------------6
C Woakes b R Ashwin ----------------------------0
A Rashid c Rahul b R Ashwin -----------------2
J Anderson c U Yadav b R Ashwin ----------2
Extras (B-15, LB-2, NB-2) --------------------19
Total (all out, 55.3 overs) -----------------195
Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-43, 3-49, 4-141,
5-180, 6-182, 7-185, 8-189, 9-193.
Bowling: B Kumar 4-1-11-1, U Yadav
3-0-10-0, R Jadeja 22-3-63-2, R Ashwin
20.3-3-55-6, J Yadav 6-0-39-1.
How Tendulkar put
Kohli on path to glory
MUMBAI: Virat Kohli revealed
Monday that sage advice from
India great Sachin Tendulkar after
a disastrous tour of England
two years ago helped turn him
into world cricket’s top batsman.
Kohli flopped during India’s
3-1 series defeat in England in
the summer of 2014, making a
total of only 134 runs over 10 innings
and mustering a top score
of just 39. Two years on and
28-year-old Kohli is celebrating
a 3-0 series victory over Alastair
Cook’s side, which included a
century and a stunning double
century — his third of the year.
Kohli said he spoke to
Tendulkar, regarded by many
as the greatest batsman ever,
and attributed some of the turnaround
in his form to what the
former India captain had to say.
“The best advice was not to
read or look up things that were
being said about me. I’m not
joking or trying to be sarcastic.
That was the best advice I got,”
said Kohli.
“That was one thing that
kept pulling me back as far as
Test cricket is concerned,” added
Kohli, who succeeded Mahendra
Singh Dhoni as captain early last
year.
“Being captain took my mind
more off those things because I
had absolutely no time to read
up or hear what people had to
say about me.
“It was all about thinking
about what the team has to
do and that has helped me immensely
to stay focused on what
I have to do on the field,” said the
star batsman.
Kohli has been the standout
batsman of 2016, amassing
more than 1,000 runs in Test
cricket for the year and bringing
the total for his career to more
than 4,000. The Indian skipper
smashed 235 runs in the second
innings against England as the
hosts humiliated their opponents
in the fourth Test, winning
by an innings and 36 runs.
It came after he scored a
century in the first Test in Rajkot.
Kohli has also hit double tons
against the West Indies and New
Zealand this year. — AFP
Joe Root
Root ready to
captain,
SAYS COOK
MUMBAI: England captain Alastair Cook said Monday Joe
Root was ready to take over as skipper but that no decision
on his own future would be taken until the new year.
India humiliated England in the fourth Test in Mumbai
to clinch the series 3-0 with a match to spare, raising questions
about how long Cook can remain in the job.
His future was called into question just before the tour
started when he admitted he could quit at the end of the series
and he was finding it difficult to be apart from his family
for long periods.
“Those comments I made don’t change,” Cook told reporters
following England’s innings and 36-run loss at
Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium.
“It sticks true to the end
of this series. Then I’ll sit
down with Straussy (England’s
Director of Cricket
Andrew Strauss) in the new
year, like we made that pact
to always talk openly and
honestly about stuff.”
Indian spinner Ravichandran
Ashwin claimed
four wickets in just half-anhour
on Monday morning
to send England crashing to
‘It sticks true to the
end of this series.
Then I’ll sit down
with Straussy in the
new year, like we
made that pact to
always talk openly
and honestly about
stuff
195 all out, meaning the hosts
won without having to bat a second innings. It was the tourists’
third heavy defeat in a row in the series after the drawn
first Test in Rajkot. “My position hasn’t changed whether we
won this game or lost,” said Cook, 31, who admitted though
that the nature of the defeat could influence his thinking.
“You start having questions, of course you do. Naturally
you look at stuff. Clearly it’s a hard place to come on tour
with the balance of our squad,” he added, referring to England’s
lack of world-class spinners.
RESPECT IN DRESSING ROOM
Root has been widely tipped to succeed Cook and the
veteran left-hander said the 25-year-old was the ideal candidate
to step into his shoes.
“I think Joe Root is ready to captain England. He’s ready
because he’s a clued on guy, he’s got the respect of everyone
in the changing room.
“He hasn’t got much captaincy experience but that doesn’t
mean he can’t be a very good captain,” Cook added, saying
the magnitude of the task should not be underestimated.
“You’re thrown in at the deep end and you kind of sink or
swim. Nothing can really prepare you for it.
“You are the forefront of the team and it comes onto your
shoulders when you win or lose.
“In the heat of the battle you make those decisions. You
either make good ones or bad ones and you have to live with
that,” said Cook. Cook, who recently overtook Michael
Atherton’s record of 54 Tests as England captain, said a lack
of world class spin bowlers had hurt his side in India.
“This is no disrespect to Mo (Moeen Ali) and Rash (Adil
Rashid) but Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar were world
class bowlers in 2012,” when England won a series in India,
said Cook.
— AFP
Pakistan confident Yasir will be fit to face Australia
Yasir Shah
SYDNEY: Pakistan coach Mickey
Arthur is confident leg spinner Yasir
Shah will be fit to face Australia in this
week’s day-night opening test of a threematch
series at the Gabba in Brisbane.
Yasir, who was left out of Pakistan’s
final test of the recent series in New
Zealand, missed last week’s pink-ball
tour match against a Cricket Australia
XI in Cairns because of a back injury
sustained in training.
“I saw him at the team hotel before I
came and he seemed fine,” South African
Arthur told reporters in Brisbane.
“Which is good because you don’t
want to deprive the Australian public
I saw him at the team
hotel before I came and he
seemed fine. Which is good
because you don’t want
to deprive the Australian
public the chance to see an
unbelievable leg spinner go
about his business
the chance to see an unbelievable legspinner
go about his business.
“And obviously he is integral to our
plans as well.”
Pakistan have never beaten Australia
in a test series Down Under and the
ability to dismiss their hosts twice
in a match will be key to their hopes
of doing so in the upcoming contests,
which also includes tests in Melbourne
and Sydney.
Yasir, who has taken 116 wickets in
20 tests at average of 27.89, is their topranked
bowler in the ICC test rankings
and took 12 wickets at an average of
a shade over 17 when Pakistan swept
Australia in his debut series in the UAE
in 2014.
Arthur, a former coach of Australia,
also said he would be looking for a better
batting performance from the tourists
after their middle and lower collapsed
against the Black Caps in Hamilton last
month and they lost the series 2-0.
“It’s no secret we need to get some
runs,” Arthur said. “Adapting outside our
conditions is difficult. It is like Australia
playing on the sub-continent but we are
working hard on that.”
The opening test, the first day-nighter
at the Gabba, starts on Thursday.
— Reuters