DHARAMSALA, India (Reuters) -India’s Kuldeep Yadav wrecked England’s batting line-up, reducing them to 194-8 at tea on the opening day of the fifth and final test on Thursday.
The left-arm wrist-spinner struck twice in the morning session, but England appeared to have weathered the early setbacks to reach 137-2.
Kuldeep (5-72) struck three times after lunch, however, and his spin partner Ravichandran Ashwin, playing his 100th test, claimed two wickets in an over to hurt England.
Ben Foakes was batting on eight at the break, with Shoaib Bashir on five as his partner.
Earlier, Zak Crawley (79) and Ben Duckett (27) forged a 64-run opening stand, despite their occasional discomforts against India’s pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah.
Kuldeep broke the stand in his first over when he dismissed Duckett with Shubman Gill taking a spectacular catch.
The opener wanted to clear the leg side ropes but ended up offering a leading edge over the cover position. Gill turned and sprinted 20 yards before diving full length to land with the ball secure in his grip.
Crawley duly brought up a 64-ball fifty, but England suffered a late blow when Kuldeep had Ollie Pope stumped for 11 on the stroke of lunch.
Pope could not read Kuldeep’s googly and was so far down the track that Dhruv Jurel had all the time in the world to stump him.
Kuldeep drew Crawley out with a flighted delivery that landed outside the off-stump, sneaked through the bat-pad gap and pegged back the leg-stump.
Jonny Bairstow (29), playing his 100th test, hit Kuldeep for a couple of sixes before falling caught behind to the bowler.
Ravindra Jadeja dismissed Joe Root lbw for 26, and Kuldeep dismissed Stokes for a duck in the same fashion.
Ashwin removed Tom Hartley and Mark Wood in the same over to put India, who are 3-1 ahead in the series, in charge.
(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; editing by Peter Rutherford and Alex Richardson)