India v England – Hosts take 2-1 series lead as England are hammered by 10 wickets in Ahmedabad

When Rohit Sharma clubbed the winning six to seal a 10-wicket home win under lights it ended a dizzying day of activity that added up to a hopelessly uneven contest between bat and pink ball but also a deserved victor.

Two-day finishes are rare for a reason - there have been only six others in the last 75 years - and it took a mixture of fine bowling, deeply flawed batting and a pitch unsuitable for long-form matches to add to that list.

To dismiss any of the three factors would be myopic and unhelpful, but while 17 wickets in the first two sessions made for high-octane entertainment it was a mostly unedifying spectacle.

England have been frustrated by the surfaces and some of the umpiring but could hardly complain about the result having lost all 20 wickets for 193 and lasted less than 80 overs across two innings.

After one session things had looked very different for the tourists, when a hot streak of seven for 31 saw them dismiss India for 145 - just 33 in front.

It had taken a staggering haul of 5-8 from Joe Root’s part-time spin to create that unexpected note of optimism, but the same conditions which had turned Root’s occasional off-breaks into unplayable hand grenades soon left England batsmen on the canvass.

Axar Patel took 5-32 to finish with a match haul of 11, with Ravichandran Ashwin bagging four, including his magical 400th.

Left needing just 49 to take a 2-1 series lead, Rohit charged for the line and ended things with a booming six off Root, whose side cannot now qualify for the World Test Championship final.

India began the day on 99-3 in reply to their opponent’s 112, moving into the lead after 15 undramatic minutes at the start of the day. Things would never return to that kind of calmness, with Jack Leach setting in motion a staggering phase of trial by spin.

Any highlights package of dismissals would show an abundance of players on either side misreading, misjudging or simply missing deliveries that went straight on but that would unfairly discount the huge number either side that ragged sharply to sow the seeds of doubt.

The carnage started when Ajinkya Rahane played back to Leach and was lbw for seven. Rohit Sharma also went lbw to Leach as he tried to sweep, Sharma departing for a fine 66 from 96 balls with 11 fours.

After two wickets in two overs for Leach it was over to Root, who struck with his first ball when Rishabh Pant followed one and was caught behind for one.

The hosts slipped to 125-7 when Root bowled Washington Sundar for a duck with a delightful off-break, which became 134-9 when Axar Patel drove Root to Dominic Sibley at cover for another duck.

At that stage, Root had 3-0 in 2.3 overs, and England had taken five wickets in the opening hour.

Root’s fourth wicket came when Ravi Ashwin, deciding that attack was the best form of defence, tried to launch him over the square-leg boundary but was well caught by Zak Crawley for 17.

Ishant Sharma, playing his 100th Test, launched Leach for a straight six - his first maximum in Test cricket.

But Root rounded things off by trapping a sweeping Jasprit Bumrah lbw for one to conclude an extraordinary opening session on day two of the pink-ball Test.

The Yorkshireman returned the joint-fifth cheapest five-wicket haul in Tests, beating the previous record by an Englishman of 5-11 by Ian Botham against Australia at Edgbaston during his famous summer of 1981.

It meant that at the change over England must have felt a mixture of joy at their comeback and trepidation at what awaited them. The joy would soon be gone.

Patel was relentless as he picked vast holes in the visiting side, pounding away mercilessly and cashing in on a mass inability to distinguish between big turners and skiddy arm balls.

He started in stirring style by cleaning up the source of almost half of England’s first-innings runs - Zak Crawley - with the first ball of the innings.

Patel thought he had a hat-trick, dating back to his last ball on day one, when he won an lbw decision against the sweeping Jonny Bairstow but when that was overturned he simply bowled the Yorkshireman outright at his next attempt.

England were still in arrears when Dom Sibley followed but Root and Ben Stokes shared a precarious stand of 31 to ensure there would be some sort of chase.

The pair joined the long list of lbw victims, Ashwin getting Stokes (25) for the 11th time in Tests and Patel finally worming his way through Root’s defence.

Once Ollie Pope lost his off stump to Ashwin, the end was nigh and none of the last five got to double figures as the spinners ran riot.

Sharma and Shubman Gill knocked off the slender target as Leach and Root tried in vain to create some drama, leaving three days to commiserate behind closed doors.

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