The last day of the final Test of the five-match India v England series at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Tuesday had battle of attrition written all over it. After Karun Nair's 303* assault had ruled out any chance of India losing the dead rubber, England had to ensure that they don't implode on the final day. But they did - from 103 for no loss, England were all out for 207, losing the match by an innings and 75 runs. The first time in the history of the game a team lost a Test match by an innings after posting over 450 runs in the first innings.
India claimed the series 4-0, extending their unbeaten run in Tests to 18 matches - their longest ever - since losing the first Test at Galle against Sri Lanka in August 2015.
The England collapse was quite similar to their implosion against Bangladesh earlier this year, when they went from 100/0 to 164 all out. While England succumbed to offspinner Mehdi Hasan in Mirpur, in Chennai it was left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja, with career-best figures of 7 for 48, who was the wrecker-in chief.
India went wicketless in the first session with England skipper Alastair Cook and fellow opener Keaton Jennings providing stern resistance. In the second, Jadeja claimed three and took a superb catch running back to raise hopes of a win. In the final session, Jadeja added four more as England lost their last six wickets for just 15 runs in 16.4 overs.
The day five MA Chidambaram track was no minefield by any stretch of the imagination, but such is the hard toil of Test cricket and that of a gruelling five-match series that England had lost the game mentally, and what transpired in Chennai seemed merely a formality.
Cook, after getting a life on four early in the day, went on to score 49 but departed in the third over after the lunch break, flicking an outside leg delivery from Jadeja, more as an afterthought, straight to the hands of leg slip KL Rahul. Virat Kohli had stationed men around Cook's bat and the ploy worked.
Youngster Jennings got to his fifty but bat-padded a Jadeja delivery back at the bowler for 54. With the two well set batsmen out, India went on the attack and Kohli opted for Umesh Yadav at one end with Jadeja at the other. Jadeja's accuracy came to the fore once again when he had Joe Root trapped in front. The umpire gave not out initially, but India took their review and succeeded. Root went for six and with that England's hopes of a draw also faded. Soon after, Jonny Bairstow flicked one to the legside off Ishant Sharma and Jadeja took a fantastic catch running back.
Ishant and Umesh banged in the ball short to keep England batters on the backfoot. With four down, England were staring down the barrel. The short ball assault continued with Moeen Ali, susceptible to that particular length, in the middle and he was left hopping around. He managed 44 but in a 'brain-freeze-moment' he slogged Jadeja only to plonk the ball to Ravichandran Ashwin at mid-on.
In his next over, Jadeja completed his sixth five-wicket haul in Tests when he had Ben Stokes flicking one straight to Nair at midwicket. Amit Mishra got in to the act next and with a googly castled first innings half-century Liam Dawson for naught. With the second new ball, Umesh scalped Adil Rashid with Jadeja taking his third catch of the innings.
Jadeja then wiped out the tail for his maiden ten-wicket haul in a match with the wicket of Stuart Broad (1) and Jake Ball (0) — and fittingly Karun Nair took the catch — a one handed snap — that led to Ball's dismissal at first slip.
This is India's 136th Test victory, 94th at home and 25th against England.
Brief Scores: England 477 (Ali 146; Jadeja 3/106) & 207 (Jennings 54; Jadeja 7/48) lost to India 759/7d (Nair 303*; Broad 2/80) by innings and 75 runs