The ‘engineer who became a cricketer’ reached the milestone for India after taking Zak Crawley’s wicket in the third Test
It turns out that even if you’ve swept up 499 Test wickets, you can’t choose when to ratchet in your milestone moment. Chief cricketing engineer Ravichandran Ashwin’s 500th didn’t come during a period of glorious Indian dominance. It wasn’t a breathtaking ball. Nor did it win the day, or even the session. Instead, it was a small sign of relief during an afternoon of whoopee led by Ben Duckett, who had already knocked up 55 in the first 11 overs of England’s reply before Ashwin started bowling, and went on to steal the headlines with a breathtaking hundred soon afterwards.
Rohit Sharma handed Ashwin the ball with the look of a man wanting answers, soon. The first delivery of his second over didn’t do anything extraordinary, but plonked firmly into the rough. Zak Crawley dropped to his knees to sweep, only to top edge to Rajat Patidar at short fine leg, who took a sweet running catch over his shoulder.