IND vs ENG | Twitter stunned as Hartley rips through India as England conquer Hyderabad in historic triumph

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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India had never lost a Test at home after taking a 100-plus first-innings lead, until Sunday. Set 231 to win on the back of Ollie Pope's 196, the hosts crumbled in the face of a brilliant Tom Hartley seven-fer which engineered a 28-run victory and saw England go 1-0 up in the five-match series.

‌Brief scores: ENG 246 & 420 (Pope 196, Hartley 34; Bumrah 4/41) defeat IND 436 & 202 (Sharma 39, Bharat 28; Hartley 7/62) by 28 runs

England kicked off Day 4 on the same note they had ended Saturday with both incumbent batters Ollie Pope and Rehan Ahmed looking confident at the crease. The duo took little team to stretch their partnership to 50 with Ollie Pope going past 150 for the second time in his Test career and it took some reserve swing magic from Jasprit Bumrah to finally break the 63-run stand by having Rehan nick behind for 28. However, no collapse was forthcoming as a belligerent Tom Hartley fearlessly took on the bowlers to stitch together an 80-run partnership which only ended with a Ravichandran Ashwin ball staying agonizingly low and barging into the stumps. Fortunately for the hosts, Mark Wood showed no batting promise and departed peacefully for a duck, provoking Pope to try one final hurrah at the stroke of Lunch and fall four short of a double century.

Chasing 231, India's first innings flurry seemed to be in the distant past with both Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal having to dig in. The English spin attack seemed a reinvented one, bowling with immense discipline, and debutant Hartley got to reap his rewards in the 12th over. Jaiswal raced down the track only to defend a ball straight into Pope's hand at short-leg and Shubman Gill followed suit two balls later by popping another catch to the centurion. That was India's biggest partnership until late into the third session as wickets kept falling at alarming frequency. India's top-scorer Rohit got trapped plumb in front by Hartley for 39, Axar Patel -- promoted from number nine to five --- hit one straight back to the tall left-armer, KL Rahul succumbed LBW to Root, and Shreyas Iyer edged a turning Jack Leach delivery to slip. Amidst the chaos, Ben Stokes affected a brilliant run-out to dismiss Ravindra Jadeja who damaged his hamstring in the process. Suddenly in dire straits at 119/7, Ashwin emerged as India's saviour once again and found a capable accomplice in Srikar Bharat. The two stayed put for over 20 overs, accumulating 57 runs together, and seemed set to take the team through to stumps.

However, in a defining moment, Hartley completed his fifer by crashing into Bharat's off-stump with five minutes of play remaining, allowing Stokes to opt for a half-hour extension. Ashwin decided the best path to victory thereon was to go aerial but unsurprisingly met a humiliating demise as did Siraj, sealing a famous 28-run win for the English.

 Final wicket!

Exceptional!

I apologise

Sensational

Yeah

Sweet

Hartley owned it

A penny

They did not!

Elite

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