Ashwin, Yadav and Jurel give India winning hand

Wicketkeeper helps trim first innings deficit with 90 before the spinners combine to skittle England for 145 in second innings

- Somshuvra Laha

"Full tha, seedha nikal gaya." Rohit Sharma didn't need any more convincing. If Ravichandran Ashwin says the ball straightened, it couldn't have done anything else. Pitching full, on leg, beating Joe Root's inside edge to crash low into his pad it looked very plumb to the naked eye. After UltraEdge confirmed there was no edge, all India needed were two dots. Pitching leg, hitting leg, India 1 Root 1.

A prevailing notion with this England side is that they always seem to find someone who can drag them out of a hole, transform a crisis into a match-winning situation, or just keep them in the game.

Unsurprisingly, no one still does that better than Root and more hearteningly-his 1.0 version, as displayed in England's first innings. So, when Root fell for 11, India knew they had a foot in the door.

The game is still not over. With the odd ball keeping low, India will have to summon all their will and more to not let the conditions mess with their head.

Till the ball gets older though, the onus is on the England spinners to bowl in the right areas.

Trying to imitate India's ploy of opening the bowling with two spinners, England too gave the new ball to Joe Root and Tom Hartley, only for their inexperience to be exposed ruthlessly. Root bagged a maiden but was swept by Yashasvi Jaiswal behind square for four after that. Hartley tossed in two half volleys that were promptly creamed through midwicket by Sharma for boundaries. Two boundaries again off Hartley's next over and India were averaging over seven runs per over.