England level series against India thanks to the in form pair of Bairstow and Root

England completed a record run chase of 378 runs to beat India on the final morning of the fifth test at Edgbaston on Tuesday.

Centuries from Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow ensured England reached their target with plenty of time to spare to level the series 2-2 and maintained new coach Brendon McCullum’s winning record as for the fourth time in a row they chased down a total.

On the opening morning of the test England won the toss and elected to put India in to bat. Jimmy Anderson picked up the wickets of Shubman Gill(17) and Cheteshwar Pujara(13) before Matt Potts bagged the scalps of Hanuma Vihari(20) and the out of form Virat Kohli(1).

Anderson had Shreyas Iyer(15) caught behind to leave India 98-5. The visitors were rescued by a stand of 222 between Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja. Pant eventually went for 146 and Jadeja 104 as India were bowled out for 416 with Anderson picking up 5-60.

England were soon in trouble as they slumped to 83-5. The home side were rescued once again by a man who is in the form of his life at the moment. Bairstow hit 106 to enable England to make 284.

With a useful first innings lead, India lost Gill(4) but recovered thanks to half centuries from Pujara and Pant with India bowled out for 245 with Ben Stokes taking 4-33 to leave England a target of 378 to win.

Openers Zak Crawley and Alex Lees set England on their way with a century partnership before Crawley was bowled by Bumrah for 46.

Ollie Pope lasted just three balls before edging Bumrah behind for a duck. Lees was run out for 56 to leave England 109-3.

Enter the two men in a rich vein of form this summer, Root and Bairstow. The pair were defiant what was thrown at them. The pair added an unbeaten 269 to comfortably get England past the line with Root unbeaten on 142 and Bairstow 114.

Follow us on Twitter @ProstInt

[columns]

[column size=”1/2″][blog type=”timeline” posts=”10″ cats=”633″ heading=”Cricket” heading_type=”timeline” /][/column]

[column size=”1/2″][blog type=”timeline” posts=”10″ cats=”1072″ heading=”News” heading_type=”timeline” /][/column]

[/columns]