England captain Alastair Cook gave credit to his bowlers after his side wrapped up victory over India within three days of the fourth Test at Old Trafford.
The hosts took nine wickets after tea on Day 3 – including four for Moeen Ali – as India collapsed to 161 all out and defeat by an innings and 54 runs.
Moeen’s devastating display of spin added to the damage done by man-of-the-match Stuart Broad and James Anderson in India’s first innings, with England posting 367 in reply thanks to half-centuries from Joe Root, Jos Buttler and Ian Bell.
Cook has no doubt it was his bowling line-up that proved the difference as they took a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. This is despite Anderson battling sickness and Broad being unable to return to bowl in India’s second innings after he was hit in the face while batting, which left him with a suspected broken nose.
“We didn’t think we’d get it done today, we thought we’d get enough cricket over the next few days,” Cook said. “But it’s great to do it in nine wickets in a session.
“Jimmy hasn’t been very well so it’s great by him to get off the bed and bowl like that for his nine overs.
“We knew we had a big effort to bowl for three hours today [without Broad], but Moeen was fantastic and everything went to plan. I’ve never seen a bloke work so hard and make such a big improvement in such a short space of time. He’s really learnt how to bowl in international cricket.
“Anderson and Broad are a brilliant pairing. I’m very lucky to captain them. In all conditions they’ve learnt how to bowl and they’re really good with the younger guys as well. Hopefully we can keep them fit for a few more years.”
On Broad’s injury, Cook said: “He’s got a bit of a sore nose. It was a really nasty blow, I think he’s broken his nose. Fingers crossed there’s no cheek fracture and hopefully he’ll be all right.”
Chris Woakes began the rot before tea after England had claimed a first-innings lead of 215 while Chris Jordan finished it off with two wickets in two balls. Anderson also weighed in with two for 18 in another high-quality effort.
With a poor forecast for the Manchester area today, England were glad to have wrapped up such an impressive victory and be heading to the Oval for next week’s fifth Test with an unassailable lead.
For India captain MS Dhoni, it is back to the drawing board after his side were bowled out cheaply in both innings.
“We were not really up to the mark, especially in the batting department,” he said. “That’s where we have to improve ahead of the next Test.
“Our batting has not really clicked. I feel it’s very important to get going ourselves and the batting department will have to improve. Most of the wickets were quite good for batting and we’ll have to apply ourselves a bit more.”
The injury for Broad, who has already revealed he will have knee surgery at the end of the series, overshadowed a superb conclusion to England’s innings, in which Root and Buttler continued their excellent work from Friday.
The seventh-wicket pair took their stand to 134 before the in-form Root – having passed 50 for the fourth time in four matches, in a summer in which he has also scored a double century – fell for 77.
Root had been watchful, after reaching his half-century in the second over of the morning, while Buttler played more expansively.
The Yorkshire batsman had just started to open up, hitting Varun Aaron for successive boundaries, before gloving a legside catch to MS Dhoni off Pankaj Singh.
That gave the hitherto luckless Pankaj his first Test wicket, having conceded 274 runs in his two matches, and another quickly followed.
Pankaj disguised a slow ball and Buttler tamely chipped to Cheteshwar Pujara at mid-off.
But the wickets were minor victories for India. Buttler had already ridden his luck in being dropped by Virat Kohli on 34 and then being caught well short of his ground on 44, only for Dhoni to miss a run out chance.
England went for lunch with a lead of 173 and looked to up the tempo immediately after the resumption.
Broad hooked Aaron for successive sixes but was then hit in the face attempting a third.
Woakes added a quick 26 but England’s innings ended on 367 when Anderson fell to his arch-rival Ravrindra Jadeja.
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