- Monday, February 24, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA continued to pile on the agony of England in the fifth and final Test of the series in Dharamsala by extending their lead in the first innings to over 60 runs with seven wickets in hand.
Captain Rohit Sharma led from the front to a century — his second in the series and 12th overall — and completed 4,000 runs in the long format in the process. The 36-year-old, who has been in prime form in the World Test Championship, put up two consecutive hundred-run partnerships with fellow opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (57) and Shubman Gill who also went to slam a century (110).
Sharma fell on the score of 103 off 162 balls when he was bowled by his England counterpart Ben Stokes, who was bowling for the first time since the 2023 Ashes at home in July.
India were 279 for 3 at the time of writing this report, taking a lead of 61 runs against the visitors who were bowled out for 218 on the first day after they won the toss and elected to bat.
Read: Test 5: India spinners dismiss England for 218 as visitors fail with the bat again
The hosts resumed from their overnight score of 135 for 1 at the picturesque Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala and added another 140 runs before Sharma perished. It was Stokes’s 198th wicket in the long format. Gill was bowled by veteran pacer James Anderson who was now just one scalp short of reaching 700 as the first pacer ever in the game’s history.
Read: Ashwin, Bairstow set to play 100th Test in Dharamsala
The Indian batter, however, completed 400 runs in the series before that, his second-highest tally of runs in a Test series after 529 that he had gathered against South Africa at home in 2019. It was also his second hundred of the series and fourth overall.
England had a half chance to get rid of Sharma when he was on 68 as he glanced the ball and it went past the leg slip fielder. Mark Wood, the other pacer who replaced Ollie Robinson for the match, also went for runs. The spinners — Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir — were moderate in giving runs but could get only one wicket.
