A century from local hero Ravichandran Ashwin heaped misery on England in the second Test against India in Chennai.
Ashwin made 106, sharing 96 with Virat Kohli, who scored 62, to take India to 286 in their second innings.
Given lives on 28, 56 and 70, Ashwin added a hundred to his five-wicket haul for the third time in his career. Only the great Sir Ian Botham has achieved the feat more often in Tests.
Set a notional 482 to win on a pitch often exploding when the ball lands, England lost three wickets in the 19 overs possible on the third evening.
After Dom Sibley was lbw to Axar Patel, Rory Burns edged Ashwin to gully and nightwatchman Jack Leach fell first ball as the tourists slumped to 53-3 at the close.
With so much time left in the game, a draw is out of the question and the four-match series is set to be level at 1-1 going into the day-night third Test in Ahmedabad on 24 February.
India show the way
For two days, the pitch has been the subject of much debate – whether the excessive turn on offer from the beginning of the match is suitable for Test cricket.
Even accounting for the edge India gained by winning the toss, the main reason for their dominance on the opening two days was their superior performance, and they rammed home their advantage to give the conditions further context on Monday.
As well as England’s spinners have bowled – Leach and Moeen Ali shared 14 wickets – they have not been able to exert the same control as their India counterparts, with a loose delivery rarely far away.
With the bat, Ashwin and Kohli showed that run-scoring is possible – particularly against the older, softer ball – if batsmen can find a way to get in.
As if to emphasise England’s shortcomings, Sibley had only three to his name when he tried to work Axar on the leg side and was palpably leg before.
Burns showed admirable intent in his 25 but made the mistake of closing the face on Ashwin to offer a leading edge, exposing Leach, who turned Axar to leg slip.
Ashwin delights home crowd
At the beginning of the day with India 54-1 and 249 ahead, their control was near total, but England were still able to reduce them to 106-6 through the bowling of Moeen and Leach and the brilliant wicketkeeping of Ben Foakes.
It was at that point Chennai-born Ashwin joined Kohli, the skipper already showing greater focus than in the first innings when he was embarrassed by Moeen.
As Kohli showed solid defence, sweet timing and crisp footwork, Ashwin scored with greater fluency, sweeping regularly on the way to a half-century from only 64 deliveries.
He was dropped at slip by Ben Stokes off Stuart Broad, with Foakes missing a thick edge off the same bowler standing up the stumps. Ashwin also could have been caught and stumped off the same Moeen delivery, only for Foakes to fumble.
Kohli’s dismissal, lbw, again to Moeen, was Ashwin’s signal to push on. On 77 when joined by last man Mohammed Siraj, he hurried through the 90s with a mighty slog-sweep for six off Moeen.
With the crowd cheering every delivery Siraj survived, there was an eruption when Ashwin edged Moeen to go to three figures and, after he played on to Olly Stone to become the last man to fall, there was further delirium when he removed Burns. (BBC Photo)
ASHWIN HITS…
INDIA ist Innings 329
Englnd 1st Innings 134
India 2nd innings
Rohit Sharma st Ben Foakes b Jack Leach 26
Shubman Gill lbw Jack Leach 14
Cheteshwar Pujara Run Out Ollie Pope 7
Virat Kohli lbw Moeen Ali 62
Rishabh Pant st Ben Foakes b Jack Leach 8
Ajinkya Rahane c Ollie Pope b Moeen Ali 10
Axar Patel lbw Moeen Ali 7
Ravichandran Ashwin b Olly Stone 106
Kuldeep Yadav lbw Moeen Ali 3
Ishant Sharma c Olly Stone b Jack Leach 7
Mohammed Siraj Not Out 16
Extras 5b 15lb 0nb 0pen 0w 20
Total (85.5 overs) 286 all out
Fall of Wickets : 1-42 Gill, 2-55 Pujara, 3-55 Sharma, 4-65 Pant, 5-86 Rahane, 6-106 Patel, 7-202 Kohli, 8-210 Yadav, 9-237 Sharma, 10-286 Ashwin
Bowling: Olly Stone 6.5 – 1 – 21 – 1, Jack Leach 33 – 6 – 100 – 4,
Moeen Ali 32 – 7 – 98 – 4, Joe Root 4 – 0 – 15 – 0, Stuart Broad 9 – 3 – 25 – 0.
England 2nd innings
Rory Burns c Virat Kohli b Ravichandran Ashwin 25
Dominic Sibley lbw Axar Patel 3
Dan Lawrence Not Out 19
Jack Leach c Rohit Sharma b Axar Patel 0
Joe Root Not Out 2
Extras 4b 0lb 0nb 0pen 0w 4
Total (19.0 overs) 53-3
Fall of Wickets : 1-17 Sibley, 2-49 Burns, 3-50 Leach
To Bat : Stokes, Pope, Foakes, Ali, Broad, Stone
Bowling : Ishant Sharma 2 – 1 – 6 – 0, Axar Patel 9 – 3 – 15 – 2,
Ravichandran Ashwin 8 – 1 – 28 – 1.
