Dharamsala: The wrist-spin masterclass by Kuldeep Yadav put India in a formidable position as England dramatically were reduced to 194/8 at Tea on Day 1 of the fifth and final Test against England here on Thursday.
England lost five wickets from 175/3 in the space of 37 balls as Kuldeep achieved the rare feat of a left-arm wrist-spinner bagging 50 Test wickets en route to his fourth 5-wicket haul in Test cricket.
Zak Crawley resumed his innings post-lunch in flawless mode and looked to get to his century before he was dismissed by Kuldeep's snazzy delivery.
After keeping Crawley under check with his varying pace and length, Kuldeep hurled a big leg-break drifting into him that shattered his stumps on a front-foot drive.
This was a massive wicket for India as Crawley was prodding along and coasting England to a good score, during his 79-run knock.
The English opener, however, was lucky to survive a catch at short leg by Sarfaraz Khan who stood his ground for a review, but skipper Rohit Sharma negated his appeal. UltraEdge showed a minor spike but the blip didn't cost India a lot.
Crawley's knock nevertheless showed that the pitch was no rank turner, but enough for the spinners to get wickets in the second session, after having assisted the pacers in the first hour of the day's play with the openers getting beaten by Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj.
Kuldeep extracted an appreciable turn from the track while Ravichandran Ashwin probed the batsmen with his skidding balls.
Ravindra Jadeja no less either. He dealt a big blow by trapping Joe Root leg before as the star English batsman misread a slider.
These wickets turned the tables in India's favour, and Kuldeep capitalised on it and made life hell for English batsmen. Jonny Bairstow tried to come out of it and succeeded in hitting some runs around before snicking a googly against Kuldeep.
Ben Stokes disappointed his fans again as he was trapped LBW on the back foot off the ball turning in.
Basking in the glory of playing his 100th Test, Ashwin had to wait to get wickets in his second burst to claim two wickets in an over. He first had Tom Hartley and then Mark Wood to push England further back.
Ben Foakes hung around but was cleaned up by Ashwin and James Anderson was caught by debutant Devdutt Padikkal, giving the off-spinner his fourth wicket.
Brief scores: England 194/8 (Zak Crawley 79; Kuldeep Yadav 5-72, Ravichandran Ashwin 2-39) vs India
