[Watch] R Ashwin Ends Ben Stokes’ Miserable Series With A Magic Ball In Dharamsala

Fittingly, R Ashwin was the provider of the series-ending ball for Ben Stokes in England’s second innings in Dharamsala.

The Indian champion off-spinner has now got rid of the left-handed Englishman 13 times in Test cricket, and he did with a magical arm ball on day 3 of the Dharamsala Test as India inched closer to sealing the series by a 4-1 scoreline.

R Ashwin completed his 36th Test five-wicket haul, sitting joint along with Richard Hadlee. Only Shane Warne (37) and Muralidaran (67) have more Test five-wicket hauls than R Ashwin in Test cricket.

In England’s second innings, Stokes was dismissed for only 2 runs in 10 balls by Ashwin. This ended a horror series with the bat for the England captain who averaged only 19.9 in the series and didn’t even manage to score 200 runs in 10 innings.

It was a lovely arm ball from R Ashwin, the ball pitching outside the off-stump and sliding into the left-handed Stokes along with the bowler’s angle from round the wicket. Stokes played for the turn but the ball continued to come in. Thus the ball beat Stokes’ inside-edge and went through the gap between his pad and bat, crashing into the stumps.

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Stokes walked off shaking his head, accepting defeat at the hands of one of the greatest bowlers of all time in the Test format. This was the 13th time that the Tamil Nadu off-spinner had dismissed the Durham batter in Test cricket.

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[Watch] R Ashwin Ends Ben Stokes' Miserable Series With A Magic Ball In Dharamsala

India have cleaned up England for 195 runs in their second dig and won the Dharamsala Test by an innings an 64 runs, taking the series 4-1. England produced a great win in Hyderabad in the first Test, but since then it has been only India who have dominated the series, even without some of their key first-choice players due to injuries, rest, or unavailability.

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