Ravichandran Ashwin narrowly misses out on monumental feat, Axar Patel makes a debut to remember

The last few wickets in the England second innings went to Ashwin's spin partners, thus denying him the chance to record the rare double of scoring a century and taking 10 wickets in a Test.

Ravichandran Ashwin, who was named the Player of the Match, and Moeen Ali narrowly missed out on some historic landmarks on the fourth and final day of the 2nd India vs England Test in Chennai as India won by 317 runs to draw the series level at 1-1 and to overtake England on the WTC points table.

Ashwin scored a century and took 8 wickets in the Test — India’s spin cartel accounted for a total of 17 wickets in the match — narrowly missing out on the rare feat of a century and 10-wicket haul double. The last few wickets in the England second innings went to Ashwin’s spin partners Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav.

Only four players have achieved this double —  Alan Davidson, Ian Botham, Imran Khan and Shakib al Hasan. Ashwin narrowly missed out on being the first Indian all-rounder to record this feat.

England’s Moeen Ali also missed out on a landmark during his entertaining cameo in the last few minutes of the match. He was the last wicket to fall, after a 18-ball 43, which included five sixes and three fours. For a while, it had looked like he would break the record for the fastest Test 50, which record is currently held by Misbah ul Haq for having scored a fifty in 21 balls.

Axar Patel is only the second left-arm spinner to take a five-wicket haul on Test debut against England since Australia’s Jack Saunders did so in 1902. The other was Alf Valentine for West Indies in 1950.

Spinners taking five-fer on Test debut for India
5/64 – VV Kumar v Pak, Delhi 1960/61
6/103 – D Doshi v Aus, Chennai 1979/80
8/61 & 8/75 – N Hirwani v WI, Chennai 1987/88
5/71 – Amit Mishra v Aus, Mohali 2008/09
6/47 – R Ashwin v WI, Delhi 2011/12
5/41 – Axar Patel v Eng, Chennai 2020/21

The win was India’s biggest win by runs against England in Tests. The previous biggest win for India against England was by 279 runs at Leeds in 1986.

Biggest Test wins for India (by runs)
337 vs SA Delhi 2015/16
321 vs NZ Indore 2016/17
320 vs Aus Mohali 2008/09
318 vs WI North Sound 2019
317 vs Eng Chennai 2020/21

The defeat ended England’s 6-match winning streak away from home. The defeat was also their biggest defeat in Asia in terms of runs. Previously the biggest margin had been a 246-run defeat to India in 2016/17.

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