ENG VS IND 5TH TEST

Right then, a series that began on 25th January has finally reached its conclusion on the 9th Match and what a five-match series this has turned out to be. Rohit Sharma receives the series-win trophy and walks to the podium where he hands it to the youngsters and they revel in the joy and pose for a team photograph, amazing scenes. We rarely see five Test matches being played but that's what made this one very engrossing and after Ollie Pope led England to a remarkable victory in Hyderabad in the 1st Test, things quickly got galvanized. India lost a few key players and handed out as many as five debuts throughout the series and all of them contributed to the comeback. Rohit Sharma led the side well and there were some memorable individual performances as India rampaged back to a 4-1 win. Both teams will be now away from international cricket for a while and most players will gear up for the upcoming Indian T20 League. We hope you enjoyed our coverage and until next time, take care and goodbye!

The Indian skipper, Rohit Sharma starts by saying that a lot of things pleased him in this Test and they did a lot of things right throughout the match. Adds that at some stage people are going to go and new guys are going to come in and even though the new guys are short in experience, they played well and his job was to make them understand the situation better and they were able to perform under pressure. Mentions that when you win a series like this, you talk about runs on the board but it is equally important to take 20 wickets in a Test match and they came close in the first game after which they were able to achieve that feat and the bowlers did a fine job. On Kuldeep Yadav, he says that it was a long conversation every now and then with him and has the potential to be a regular match-winner and he has got something about him that everyone needs to accept and be happy about and the way he has bounced back after the injury is commendable. On Yashasvi Jaiswal, he says that he has a long way to go and has started off brilliantly and we saw throughout the series that he wants to put bowlers under pressure from the word go and that is something they want to encourage and there will be challenges ahead but he has come a long way already.

Yashasvi Jaiswal is the Player of the Series for scoring more than 700 runs in the five Test matches including a couple of double hundreds as well. Jaiswal says that he really enjoyed it and the series gives him a lot of experience. On the amount of sixes he hit, he adds that he was just thinking to play his shots and if he felt like he wanted to take the bowler down, he went for it. Mentions that he is trying to play one match at a time and help his team in any way possible.

Kuldeep Yadav is the Player of the Match for his stellar performance. Kuldeep says that he reckons this is the best he has bowled and it is all due to the hard work he put in over the last couple of years. Adds that his best performance came in Ranchi and he enjoyed bowling on it and reckons that he liked the wicket of Ben Stokes in Ranchi. Adds that he is just focusing on the length and is trying to bowl on a good length and it is helping a lot not to think about what the batter is looking to go. Ends by saying that the credit goes to the batting coach who helped him a lot and even in the mental aspect.

Ben Stokes, the captain of England says that the series has come to an end and they have a lot of positives to take back as they have a lot of cricket coming up against Pakistan and Australia. He further adds that the players are all professionals and are performing at the highest level, for new people it is not very easy to come out and express themselves straight away and he gives credit to all the debutants who managed to leave an impact on the stage. He finally talks about the 700th wicket of James Anderson and says that he is someone every kid who wants to be a fast bowler should look up to and he is still brilliant to watch.

The Presentation ceremony...

The Indian head coach, Rahul Dravid now comes up for a chat as well. Dravid says that he is really proud and to go behind in the 1st Test was a bit disappointing but credit to the boys for bouncing back. Adds that it was nice to see the boys fight back after being pegged down on various occasions and gives credit to the support staff as well. Reckons that it can be tough when you lose players of such high stature and adds the amount of talent there is in India and one could see that throughout the series. Gives credit to the selectors as well as they did a fine job of picking the team. Says that there were many standout performances and it is hard to pick one but Ravichandran Ashwin's effort to come back after a difficult 24 hours shows what this team is made of.

The star of the moment in his 100th Test match, Ravichandran Ashwin is down for a chat. Ashwin says that he is feeling extremely happy to have bowled well in his 100th Test Match. Adds on by saying that in a country like India, the wickets from city to city are very different and the bowlers adjust according to the wicket on offer. He mentions that he extremely enjoyed bowling on this wicket even though he went for a few hits. He talks about taking criticism well and he says that he works hard to become better every match. Ends by saying that there are a lot of batters who play spinner really well and with all the videos going around it is very important to stay on top of that as it requires you to outsmart yourself at times to do something that is never done before and he looks to keep working on his bowling and keep picking wickets for the country.

India will be absolutely thrilled with that victory and with how the series panned out after that shocking loss in the first Test in Hyderabad that seems to have happened ages ago it seems. It was a near-perfect performance as all their top five batters got runs, with three fifties and two centuries and then spin ruled the roost in both innings. Kuldeep Yadav, on a high from the last game, picked up another five-wicket haul as Ravichandran Ashwin racked up 4 wickets in his 100th Test and then went on to pick up a fifer himself in the second innings to make it 9 wickets in the game. Kuldeep bowled well in the second innings as well and Jasprit Bumrah who captained the side on the field in the second innings bowled a lovely spell in the middle to knock over a couple of wickets. All in all, it was a stellar performance and the hosts will be very proud of it.

England had a poor showing with the bat in the first innings after opting to bat first on a pitch that seemed pristine for batting and that's where they lost the game, on Day 1 itself. They failed to make inroads with the ball as well and thanks to some real persistence from Shoaib Bashir, they managed to finally bundle out the opposition having conceded a lead of 259 runs. With the pitch still good for batting, the English openers got out cheaply and a struggling Ollie Pope soon followed suit. This put pressure on the middle order and there was a counter-punch from Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow but that didn't last long either. Root held up one end and played some quality shots as well but the wickets kept tumbling on the other end and the skipper, Ben Stokes got out on the stroke of Lunch. Root stitched a steady stand with Bashir down the order and looked all set for a fighting ton but in the end, he went for a big shot and was the last man to be dismissed.

INDIA WIN THE SERIES 4-1! What a dominating performance this has been in Dharamshala from the hosts as they have wrapped up proceedings inside three days and have sealed the 5th and final Test match by an innings and 64 runs, a huge margin of victory. England were already five down when the players went into the Lunch break and after an astute fightback from Joe Root, they have folded before Tea and will be truly disappointed as they reflect on what could have been if they had just applied themselves better when the opportunities were presented to them.

OUT! CAUGHT! India finish the match within 3 days and lift the series 4-1! Kuldeep Yadav flights the ball up on the off stump line and Joe Root dances down the track and launches the ball flat and straight to Jasprit Bumrah at long on, who takes a reverse cup and punches the air with joy.

Pitches the ball up outside the off stump line and James Anderson knocks it off the front foot.

Holds the length back on the stumps. James Anderson blocks it off well.

Tosses it up slow outside the off stump. Joe Root tucks the ball to the left of covers and runs a single.

Pitches the ball up on the off stump line. Joe Root taps it towards covers.

Fires one on the off stump line. Joe Root plays it out well.