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India have crushed England by 434 runs after the tourists had a dramatic batting collapse. The tourists were always behind in the game, after they had a first innings deficit of 126, that they needed to claw back.

In the first test, Ben Stokes’ England side were able to do that, but in the next two tests that have followed, they have not. England have had periods in this test where they were in the game.

India’s first innings in particular was littered with England dropping catches. Home captain Rohit Sharma was given two lives as he made a century. Shubman Gill (91) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (214 not out) in the second innings put England’s tired bowlers to the sword.

The 182-run fifth-wicket partnership was only ended when India’s skipper waved his two young batsmen back into the pavilion. England’s batsmen now had the small task of seeing off Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, a bowler who looked back to his best after his first innings heroics with the ball (4-84).

England stumbled to 50-5. This, in tests gone by, has been visiting captain Ben Stokes’ cue to hit a wonderful counter-attacking inning, but this wouldn’t be the case as 50-5, turned to 50-7.

The Three Lions at this point would have realised that a spanking is on the cards. Play for some pride, would have been the thoughts of the visiting fans. Mark Wood batting down at number 10, had a little bit of fun with a 15-ball knock, where he scored 33.

This was a mere consolation as England were well beaten. The visitors were gifted five runs and also saw India’s star bowler out of the game for a prolonged period. Ben Stokes and his men will need to regroup for the fourth test which starts on 23rd February in Ranchi.

To put it into context how rampant India were, opener Jaiswal hit James Anderson for three sixes in a row. Anderson a veteran of over 100 tests looked shell-shocked and even he was powerless to stop the onslaught.

Debutant Sarfraz Ahmed was enjoying himself too. The Mumbai star, followed his first innings fifty up with an unbeaten 68, which included some monster sixes of the bowling of young leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed.

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