India v England first Test report and scorecard: James Anderson bowls tourists to famous victory

Scorecard: India v England first Test

England first innings 578 all out: (Root 218, Sibley 87, Stokes 82; Bumrah 3-84, Ashwin 3-146)

India first innings 337 all out: (Pant 91; Bess 4-76, Anderson 2-46)

England second innings 178 all out: (Root 40; Ashwin 6-61)

India second innings 192 all out: (Kohli 72; Leach 4-76, Anderson 3-17)

England won by 227 runs

Day five report

James Anderson inspired England to a famous fifth day win over India in the first Test, paving the way for a 227-run victory with an astonishing spell of reverse swing in Chennai.

Four days of hard-earned dominance had left the tourists on the cusp of an upset against opponents who had lost just one of their last 35 matches on home turf dating back to 2012, and Anderson’s magnificent work in the morning made it a reality.

The 38-year-old defied expectations that spin would be the only way to finish things off, dismissing Shubman Gill and Ajinkya Rahane in an over which will go down as one of the most compelling in recent history.

Both batsman saw their off stump go cartwheeling as Anderson got the ball hooping in outrageously, and there could easily have been an lbw decision against Rahane in between. By the time he had the dangerous Rishabh Pant cheaply caught at short cover, Anderson had swung the game – quite literally – with a five-over burst of three wickets for six runs.

Jack Leach was also a key performer, bouncing back from some damage in the first innings to claim four for 74, while Ben Stokes had the satisfaction of clean bowling India captain Virat Kohli for 72.

Joe Root’s side have now completed six consecutive overseas wins, including visits to South Africa and Sri Lanka, their best streak away from home since 1914.

Quite aside from his leadership role, Root’s runs were a decisive factor in Chepauk, top-scoring in both innings with 218 and 40.

Leach got England up and running with an early blow for his team, prising out India’s most reliable blocker, Cheteshwar Pujara, in his fourth over. Pujara has plenty of previous for long, disciplined innings, but could only edge to slip off the shoulder of the bat when the left-armer dragged one back across from a leg-stump line.

India recovered well from that setback, with Gill moving to 50 but that ushered Anderson to the table after 13 overs of waiting. At his age he might be expected to ease himself into a new spell but, having sensed the ball was ready to reverse, he engaged in outright destruction. Disguising his action carefully, he tailed the next one in sharply, toppling the off stump as Gill left a tell-tale gap between bat and pad.

Anderson in this kind of mood is an irresistible prospect and two balls later he was sure Rahane had succumbed lbw to another mighty inducker. The umpire was unmoved and, although DRS showed it taking out middle, there was just enough doubt over point of impact.

Undeterred, he went back to the top of his mark and uprooted Rahane’s off stump at the very next attempt. It was magnificent mayhem of the kind a swing bowler is simply not supposed to create in this part of the world.

Pant, who crashed his way to 91 in the first innings, was next and it is testament to Anderson that the swashbuckling number six fell in tentative manner. Unbalanced and feeling for contact, he chipped to Root at short cover.

Dom Bess was largely poor, with a selection of full tosses routinely despatched by Kohli, but when he landed one nicely against Washington Sundar it was good enough to snare his edge for a fifth wicket of the morning.

Archer had the speed to bully Ravichandran Ashwin, hitting him three times on the gloves or helmet, but he detained England for 46 balls before giving way to the persistent Leach. Tempted too close to his body he nudged the ball straighr to Jos Buttler off his glove.

Kohli was now engaged in a one-man battle of wills with the tourists and it was Stokes who stepped forward to settle it. He had been used sparingly as a bowling option in the first four days but knows better than most how to seize the moment.

And so, with a hoop through the air that would have had Anderson nodding with approval, he scuttled one under Kohli’s bat and rearranged his stumps. Rory Burns held on to Shahbaz Nadeem at the second attempt to give Leach his fourth success of the innings.

Archer concluded things to spark celebrations that will live long in the memory, nabbing Ishant Sharma’s outside edge to leave the tourists a stirring 1-0 lead in the four-match series.

Reaction

James Anderson: “I didn’t really do anything out of the ordinary from the plans we had.

“I was just lucky really with a couple that hit the bare patches and a bit of reverse as well. So there was a bit of luck involved as well but I was happy with how it went.

"It’s always nice to see the stumps cartwheeling out the ground. It doesn’t happen very often at my age so I’m really happy with it.

“To be honest I was more expecting an lbw, one to keep low or a caught midwicket with one that stuck in the pitch a little bit.”

Joe Root: “He’s [Anderson] just the GOAT I reckon, leave it there. He seems to get better all the time.

“His skill level keeps improving, his work-rate is as good as anyone’s I’ve ever seen and his fitness levels are probably the best they’ve ever been. He’s a credit to English cricket.

“When you’re under pressure and need something to happen, if you’ve got him in your armoury it’s a very comfortable position to be in.”

Asked to place Anderson’s first six balls in context, Root reached back to an old touchstone of English cricket.

“I can’t think of (a better over) in my time. It reminded me of Andrew Flintoff in 2005, the impact of that over to (Ricky) Ponting and (Justin) Langer. Big-game players stand up and do special things.

“We’ve set a benchmark now and have something to work from and compare ourselves to. But we can’t be happy with what we’ve done.

“They have some wonderful individual players that will be hurting right now and will want to prove a point when they come to play again. But I’m proud of the performance and to sit here 1-0 up feels good.”

Day four report

England backed their bowlers to finish India off on day five of the first Test in Chennai, after opting not to buy extra time in the game with a declaration.

Joe Root decided not to intervene in his side’s second innings, allowing them to bat into the final hour and pile up a lead of 419 – leaving a world record chase in their wake – in a bid to take an unlikely India win out of the equation.

Jack Leach’s dismissal of Rohit Sharma gave the tourists a further shot in the arm and nine further breakthroughs are needed in the final three sessions to cap what would be a memorable away success. India closed on 39 for one, with 90 overs of battle left.

Root had earlier declined to enforce the follow-on despite dismissing the hosts for 337, a deficit of 241 runs, preferring to give his bowlers a rest and stretch the advantage.

He went on to top-score with 40 as his side were bowled out for 178, setting up a final equation that England would have only dreamed of when they touched down.

And Root’s apparent conservatism was always likely to cause some debate, the fact that the record chase in India came against England at this ground cannot be ignored.

In 2008, Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men scored 387 for the loss of only four wickets, while Virat Kohli’s side are just a couple of weeks on from their audacious pursuit against Australia at The Gabba.

India had started the day on 257 for six, with Washington Sundar and Ashwin turning an already frustrating stand of 32 from the previous evening into a substantial one worth 80.

It took the introduction of Leach to end their fun, with the left-armer ignoring bruising figures of nought for 100 to dismiss both Ashwin and Shahbaz Nadeem. Washington had batted beautifully for 85 not out but simply ran out of road.

James Anderson wrapped things up, bouncing out Ishant Sharma before Ben Stokes held a stunner at slip to remove Jasprit Bumrah.

Despite easily clearing the 200-run threshold, Root was never likely to send India back in to bat, preferring to let his bowlers have a break from the heat.

That meant Rory Burns and Dom Sibley faced the thankless prospect of two overs before lunch, a slim window of opportunity that Ashwin gleefully accepted. He clipped Burns’ outside edge with the first ball of the innings and wheeled away in joy as Cheteshwar Pujara held on at slip.

There was no shortage of incentives to score quickly but the reality was harder, with Dan Lawrence and Sibley restricted to 34 between them in 84 balls. Ashwin set Sibley up nicely, drawing him forward outside off stump and drawing an inside edge that pinged to leg-slip.

Lawrence lasted for another 20 minutes before Ishant had him lbw, in the process becoming just the third Indian seamer to claim 300 Test scalps. The arrival of Root heralded an instant shift in tone as he wasted no time indulging his party piece.

Twice in his first four balls he stooped to sweep Nadeem for four and Ashwin was soon treated similarly as Root defied him to find a solution. When the latter adjusted his line, Root simply swapped his hands and reverse swept yet another boundary.

By now there were two matches unfolding simultaneously, with Root dominating one and India making good headway in the other. Even the arrival of Stokes could not alter that, one muscular blow for four his only real intervention before he nicked Ashwin out of the rough to make it 71 for four.

Root’s one-man mission to speed things along ended with a slice of reverse swing and an lbw for Bumrah, who had been held back until the 22nd over but swiftly made his presence felt.

The question of the declaration loomed over the rest of the innings, with Ollie Pope and Jos Buttler stretching the lead to 360 at tea.

Pope started the final session by reverse sweeping ambitiously out of the rough, a tactic that soon got the better of him as he picked out midwicket.

With all eyes on the balcony, Root opted to not intervene as Buttler was stumped for 24 and Ashwin mopped up the tail to finish with six for 61.

Despite their position of dominance, there was now some pressure on England to make inroads with the new ball.

Rohit is not the kind of opener built to dig deep and defend and he played to type here, pulling Archer for four and six successively before exiting for an inconsequential 12.

Root’s decision to use Leach first up instead of Anderson paid dividends, with the Somerset man turning one past the outside edge and into the top of off stump.

Day three report

Dom Bess took centre stage with four wickets as England hammered home their advantage in the first Test against India.

The hosts responded to an imposing first-innings score of 578 by scrapping to 257 for six at stumps, with Bess running through a high-class middle order.

Capturing India captain Virat Kohli at bat-pad for just 11 was the off-spinner’s moment of the day – and probably his career thus far – and he also ended a thrilling counter-attack from Rishabh Pant for 91.

He relied on good fielding and good fortune too, Joe Root taking a brilliant one-handed catch to see off Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara left aghast when his pull shot looped to midwicket via a huge deflection off the cowering Ollie Pope.

Bess ended with figures of four for 55, another significant return for a player who is clearly learning on the job as a Test cricketer but regularly finds a way to meet the challenges in front of him. With Jofra Archer earlier accounting for both openers with the new ball, England walked off at stumps 321 ahead and with a big chance to open up the road to a series-opening victory.

The tourists batted on for 41 minutes on the third morning in Chennai, eking out another 23 runs before Bess (34) and James Anderson were removed. After waiting almost seven sessions and 190.1 overs for a chance to bat, both Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill were sent back by Archer before lunch.

Rohit was undone by Archer for six, caught behind after a half-hearted prod that underlined the thanklessness of the opening batsman’s lot.

With Anderson unusually harmless with the new ball, Archer mixed it up impressively as he flipped between bouncers and leg-cutters. Gill was entertainingly up for the challenge, stroking his way to a swift 29 before lifting one off his toes and towards mid-on. At 38, Anderson might have been forgiven for any sluggish reactions but he swooped in to complete a catch worthy of athletes half his age.

Pujara (73) and Kohli went about their work in more careful fashion, showing due deference to huge deficit.

After a solitary over before lunch, Bess was given an extended chance at the start of the afternoon’s play and quickly landed a knockout blow against one of the modern greats. Having established a consistently solid line and length he found a winning combination, drifting one away through the air and gathering just enough grip to take the inside edge of Kohli’s forward press.

Pope held the bat-pad chance and England had their prize scalp. Rahane followed in Bess’ next over, stepping out to take the ball on the full and carving to cover. Root took care of the rest, snaring a stunning one-handed catch at full stretch. While India laboured for 126.1 overs to take four wickets, they had allowed England to do so in just 26.3 and with just 73 scored.

Pujara was offering some badly-needed solidity at number three and he was soon joined by Pant, who offered an alternative approach to adversity. Announcing his intent with back-to-back fours off Archer he went after Leach in eye-popping fashion. He brazenly unloaded four sixes in the space of seven deliveries, hard and high in the arc between long-on and mid-wicket. Later, he would add a sixth.

Both batsmen passed 50 just before tea, Pant taking just 40 balls while Pujara took the longer way round. England’s hopes that Pant would hit himself into trouble took longer than they hoped to materialise, but a big slice of luck allowed them to end his partner’s studious stay.

Pujara had started to prey on Bess, pulling a short ball then easing the over-correction through extra-cover. Invited to pull for the ropes again he middled one straight into Pope as he hunched over in an act of self-preservation.

The ball could have veered in any direction but to the disbelief of everyone on the field it made its way obligingly into Rory Burns’ hands. Bess has garnered a happy knack of picking up unlikely wickets and this latest example was one of the strangest yet.

Handed an even greater share of the burden, Pant lapped the ball over his right shoulder and swatted a Bess full toss dismissively to move within nine of his century. He would not get any closer, immediately trying to launch down the ground and picking out Leach in the deep.

With 77 runs off the left-armer’s eight overs to date, the chance at gaining a measure of revenge was eagerly taken. Washington Sundar and Ravichandran Ashwin added 32 for the seventh wicket as England tired in the heat. Leach saw a late chance to massage his figures go begging when Archer failed to hold a half-chance from Washington, and ended with nought for 94 in 17 trying overs.

Day two report

Joe Root continued his relentless accumulation of runs in 2021, helping himself to his second double century of the year to give England control of the first Test against India.

Root had already marked his 100th cap in style by reaching three figures on day one in Chennai and made good on his promise not the settle for that.

Fresh from racking up 228 and 186 in the previous two matches against Sri Lanka, Root turned his overnight score of 128 into the fifth double of his career – brought up in style with a handsome blow for six down the ground.

He was eventually undone for 218, helping the tourists to a formidable total of 555 for eight at stumps in 180 overs and counting, lifting his average since he turned 30 in December to 128.80.

Along the way Root has faced 1,384 deliveries, 377 of them across almost nine hours over the past two days, and climbed through England’s all-time scoring ranks as he went.

Five innings ago he sat eighth on the list and now lies third on 8,467, with A.lec Stewart the latest famous old name to be usurped.

With England 263 for three overnight Root started the day by slipping into the background, calmly accumulating just 28 runs in the two hours up to lunch as he gave the stage to a returning Ben Stokes and his wonderfully aggressive 82.

Taking guard for the first time since August 8, Stokes narrowly survived a vicious yorker from Jasprit Bumrah on nought before opening his account with a steer to third man and an arcing six over long-off. Back-to-back boundaries off Ishant Sharma before the drinks break worried India captain Virat Kohli enough for him to waste the first of three unsuccessful reviews appealing for lbw off the glove.

With the ball turning and bouncing awkwardly from the left-hander’s rough, Stokes gave up chances on 31 and 32, Ashwin putting down a tough return catch and Cheteshwar Pujara failing to pluck a half-chance out of the air at mid-wicket. Indian briefly thought they had caged the lion, only for the Stokes to chew through bars as his ‘alpha’ side took over.

His next attempt at slog-sweeping Shahbaz Nadeem sailed clean for six and when the left-armer tried to regain control, Stokes had the audacity to reverse sweep successive deliveries out of the footmarks for four.

India spurned a run-out chance when Stokes hurried Root through for a misjudged single but with boundaries continuing to flow from the all-rounder’s bat they could not shift the momentum.

Stokes hit his third six of the day at the start of the afternoon session, pounding Nadeem back over his head but his eagerness to dominate caught up with him.

A top-edged sweep off against Nadeem sailed to Pujara in the deep and although his juggled effort made for a tense moment, he eventually smothered the ball.

Ollie Pope, back after surgery on a dislocated shoulder, eased his nerves with an early four but Root was now ready to take the lead again. One flat blow down the ground almost took the non-striker’s head off and a reverse lap off Washington Sundar showed his creative side.

With regular singles keeping things moving, Root went to 200 with a rare display of power. Committing fully to a big swing at Ashwin, he cleared the boards at long-on to usher in his latest proud landmark.

Of the eight other batsmen to score a ton in their 100th appearance, Inzamam-ul-Haq’s 184 had been the previous best.

Pope’s 34 was a scratchy affair, ended when he played around Ashwin and fell leg before.

Root, who had come to the crease with 63 on the board finally departed the score on 477, finally missing one from Nadeem as he looked to nudge the ball off his pads. He reviewed the lbw decision in vain, taking a moment to accept a handshake from opposite number Kohli as he left.

Jos Buttler guided England past 300 without ever looking fully secure and lost his off stump shouldering arms to Ishant Sharma. The veteran seamer had sent down 23 overs without success but then made it two in two, cleaning up Jofra Archer first ball.

Jack Leach negotiated the hat-trick ball and went on to add 30 with Dom Bess (28 not out), the latter benefitting from tired minds in the field as Rohit Sharma grassed a comically easy catch.

Day one report

Joe Root crowned his 100th Test appearance and England’s long-awaited return on free-to-air television with a superb century fit for any occasion in Chennai.

A series opener against the might of India is a big enough draw in any circumstances, but the captain’s career milestone and the prospect of emerging from behind a paywall for the first time since the 2005 Ashes made this a major moment for English cricket.

Root was more than equal to it, meeting history head on as he became just the ninth player to mark a hundred caps with a hundred runs. Among Englishmen only Sir Colin Cowdrey, in 1968, and Alec Stewart, in 2000, have previously chalked up that singular achievement.

He ended the day 128 not out in a stumps score of 263 for three, with a 200-run stand with Dom Sibley (87) broken with the day’s final delivery.

After a team presentation ahead of play there was a tremble of emotion in Root’s voice as he spoke at the toss, and he even momentarily forgot his playing XI in a pre-match interview. But it is at the crease, not in front of the microphone, that the man from Sheffield does his best work.

He arrived at the crease on the back of huge knocks against Sri Lanka, 228 and 186 in Galle, and was quite brilliant again as he notched up his 20th Test ton. Having decided his side would make first use of a docile batting track he made his way to the middle at 63 for two just before lunch, with a rush of blood from Rory Burns and a duck from Dan Lawrence leaving England in a tricky situation.

Root expertly turned that into a position of strength over the course of the day, in unison with the steadfast Sibley. Root scored all over ground, sweeping with his usual elegance and variety, driving beautifully but infrequently and late on heaving premier spinner Ravichandran Ashwin for six before collapsing with cramp.

Sibley was an invaluable part of the story, making a resolute 87 in 286 deliveries before falling lbw in the final over. It was a grand show of determination worthy of three figures and without his hard work, Root may have been fighting a rearguard not building a powerful platform.

The day began with an early scare for Burns, back at the top of the order after paternity leave. He flicked Jasprit Bumrah’s first ball off his thigh and offered a tough chance that the diving Rishabh Pant could not gather.

That proved a solitary scare in the opening 90 minutes, with Sibley and Burns soon settling on a flat surface. The runs trickled rather than flowed, but Sibley was reassuringly secure after his struggles against spin in Sri Lanka.

He was firm in defence on the front foot and when the chance came to score he did – finding his preferred areas on the on-side whenever the bowlers erred in line. He showed no inclination to go quickly – reaching lunch with just 26 to his name – but Burns decided to make his move in the 24th over, unleashing a cavalier reverses sweep that ballooned into the keeper’s gloves.

With Jonny Bairstow back home in Yorkshire on a period of rest and Zak Crawley injured after slipping on a marble floor earlier this week, it fell to Lawrence to occupy the number three position.

It is one he has rarely filled at county level and proved too great an ask here, as a big slice of reverse swing from Bumrah had the Essex prospect lbw for nought. Root contrived to involve himself in a run-out scare moments before lunch, underlining the growing unease, and would have been happy reach the break without further damage at 67 for two.

Root was stuck for a while on 11, during which he had three dicey moments against Ishant Sharma, but once he opened his boundary account after 55 balls, courtesy of a sweetly-driven four off Washington Sundar, he did not look back. Sibley hung in to post his watchful fifty before tea but Root was catching up fast, timing his sweeps and serving notice with successive boundaries off Ashwin.

The evening session belonged to Root, who raced past Sibley as he piled on another 83 runs before stumps. The sweep shots he relied on in Galle last month were out in force, hammered in front of square or tickled fine as the ball demanded. Rarely, if ever, did contact come from anywhere other than the middle of the bat.

There was switch hit too, a relatively new addition to an already vast armoury, and an on-the-up drive off the tiring Bumrah. Root breezed through the 90s before tickling the single he needed to reach three figures, skipping past Sibley and punching the air before taking in a standing ovation from the away dressing room.

The physical demands caught up with him late on, but even while hobbling he was in control, not least when slog-sweeping Ashwin all the way. Sibley deserved to go again in the morning but could not keep out Bumrah’s last effort at the stumps.