England dismissed India for 184 to register a 60-run win in the fourth Test at Southampton and complete the series victory on Sunday, taking﷽ an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match contest as Moeen Ali finished with overall figures o🌜f 9-134.
England set India a target of 24⭕5 in t𒉰he second innings after being bowled out for 271 early on Day 4 and quickly made inroads before lunch.
Stuart Broad clean bowled KL Rahul for a duck, before James Anderson got his first wickets of the match as he trapped Cheteshwar Pujara (5) leg before wicket and had Shikhar Dhawan (17) caught at slip to leave In🎀dia at💎 22-3.
However, a fourth-wicket century stand between Virat Kohli (58) and Ajink꧑ya🌱 Rahane (51) moved India within sight of victory and put the pressure back on England.
Not for the first time in the match, Ali responded. England’s off-spinner, who was playing his first match of the series, took the crucial wicket of Kohli just before Tea and ended up with figures of 4-71. India lost their last six wickets for just 61 runs.
Relive the moment when Eng💯land sealed the series! 🙌🏻
— Sony Sports Network (@SonySportsNetwk)
Here’s how Twitterati reacted to England’s superb win:
England outspin India in England……didn’t see this coming. Mooen Ali, take a bow 🙇♂️
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash)
There is never one factor that decides the result of a Test. But in the final essay the difference between Moeen & Ashwin proved to be the differe🧔nce between the two sides.
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar)
From 36 for 4 in the 1st Innings to Win by so many is some performance … Sam Curran deserves a lot of the credit as do all the bowlers who have been outstanding this week .. & the catching 👀
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan)
Fantastic test match ..congratulations England ..virat kohli an absolute standout .and for me Kumara Dharmasena was fantastic in these conditions …best umpire
— Sourav Ganguly (@SGanguly99)
Again, what could have been.
Sam Curr🐈an made the difference with the bat both in the first test as well as here, but Moeen Ali was the differeܫnce between the two sides.— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif)
Like with the series in South Africa, this will go down as what-could-have-been rather than what actually was. Neither South Africa nor England were as good as they have been in the past. But then, maybe, India isn't as good as we believe it to be
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha)
YEEEESSSSS! Well played what a great win!
— Matt Prior (@MattPrior13)
Brilliant spirit shown through out the series from the boys! Great series win𒅌 against an outstanding side! 👌🤛
— James Taylor (@jamestaylor20)
It’s 3-1 Engla🍷nd but India have played some excellent cricket
— David 'Bumble' Lloyd (@BumbleCricket)
Moeen Ali loves playing at Southampton vs India,9 wickets today and 8 in 2014 vs India,had a good overall series vs them ඣin 2014 too,India’s top five underperforming,heavily rely on Kohli to perform..
— zainab abbas (@ZAbbasOfficial)
This is the problem.
Whenever India's GDP looks up, the cricket team loses— Madhavan Narayanan (@madversity)
series is over, but India can aim for something at the oval. only once has an Indian team won two tests in a series in England, back in 1986…that was a series win of course…
— Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75)
4th Test bowled out for 184, wins the Test and goes up 3-1 in the 5 Test ser🦩ies. batsmen let us down, while our bowlers are superb. After many💃, many years best fast bowling line -up, something to be happy about.
— Sreedhar Pillai (@sri50)
This might have been the 'weakest' England team in some years or whatever, but they deserve to win the series. They've been better than India.
— Saurabh Somani (@saurabh_42)
We have to look at Pandya as number 6. Really doesn’t inspire confidence. One good test match isn’t enough. Batting certainly not good enough at 6. And most tests does little with the ball. Jadeja may have been better on this🐼 pitch? But this is hindsight.
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar)
From 86 for six on Day 1, India let England just win this Test. Maybe a case of over trying, maybe over experimen𒆙ting, maybe something else but to let this Engl𒈔and batting line up win the series, well, there can be no answers
— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73)
The wait continues – the last time India successfully chased a 4th innings target of over 100 runs outside Asia was in December 2003 against Australia
— Saj Sadiq (@SajSadiqCricket)
