England spun their way to victory in the IND vs ENG 1st Test as they went 1-0 up in the five-match series after winning the game by 28 runs. Tom Hartley stunned the hosts on debut, grabbing a five-wicket haul on debut. Chasing 213 runs to get a 1-0 lead in the five-match series, the hosts suffered a serious setback, with their top-order collapsing like a pack of cards. Hartley finished with figures of 7-62, with the last wicket coming in the last over of the day,.
IND vs ENG: Hartley spins England to victory in Hyderabad
The spinner first got rid of openers Rohit Sharma (39) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (15). Shubman Gill (0) had yet another failure as he was dismissed for a duck. Axar Patel (17) was the next to go while Root joined the party and trapped KL Rahul (22) for an LBW.
Spin continued to haunt the hosts as Shreyas Iyer (13) was the next to depart. Ravindra Jadeja (2) soon followed after a brilliant piece of fielding by Ben Stokes, thereby running him out. However, it is a point of concern for India as he walked off the field clutching his hamstring.
Hartley’s fifth victim was KS Bharat (28) as the Indian keeper walked back after managing to hold fort for a significant time along with Ashwin. It wasn’t long before the England spinner struck again as Ashwin soon joined Bharat back to the pavilion, a delivery after play was extended by 30 minutes as England closed in on a victory. The final nail in the coffin came as Siraj was stumped, marking the end of the 1st Test.
Earlier in the day, facing a 190-run deficit and staring down the barrel of defeat at 163/5 yesterday, Ollie Pope orchestrated a stunning rescue act on Day 4. His unorthodox sweeps and reverse-sweeps against the Indian spinners defied conventional wisdom and unsettled the home team’s attack.
But Ollie Pope wasn’t a lone showman. He built three crucial partnerships – 112, 64, and 80 – with the lower order, refusing to let India roll England over. This wasn’t a one-man effort; it was a testament to Pope’s leadership and his ability to rally his team even when the odds were stacked against them.
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