India have completed a 4-1 series victory over England courtesy of recording a comprehensive win in the fifth Test by an innings and 64 runs in Dharamsala.
Although James Anderson finally claimed his 700th wicket in Test cricket, it was a rare positive note on another one-sided day during the back end of the series.
England were able to dismiss the remaining two India batsmen rather swiftly on Saturday morning, Anderson the man to strike as he took the wicket of Kuldeep Yadav for 30.
In doing so, the 41-year-old became just the third player after Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne to take 700 wickets in the long format of the game, with the veteran paceman now just eight wickets adrift of legendary Australian Warne.
JIMMY ANDERSON'S 7⃣0⃣0⃣TH TEST WICKET 🏏
— Cricket on TNT Sports (@cricketontnt) March 9, 2024
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 🐐👏#INDvENG pic.twitter.com/NdOnLyEhoV
Shoaib Bashir took the final wicket, securing figures of 5-169 and admirably ending his debut series with 17 wickets at an average of 33.35, yet England were unable to build on an encouraging start to the day.
While the visitors were never likely to threaten a victory as they started their second innings trailing by 259 runs, respectability was demanded and most certainly not achieved.
Joe Root made a resilient 84 from 128 balls, while Jonny Bairstow battered 39 from 31, yet much of the rest of the innings was a mess, with Zak Crawley (0), Ben Duckett (2) and Ben Stokes (2) among those who departed without bringing any value.
Tom Hartley (20) and Bashir (13) deserve credit for extending proceedings with a 48-run ninth-wicket partnership, but it was Ravichandran Ashwin who was the star of the day, taking slightly unusual figures of 5-77 off just 14 overs as England were bowled out for 195 inside 48.1 overs.
Darren Plant
