Images from Day 1 of the fifth and final Test between India and England in Dharamsala on Thursday.
The fragility of England batters against high-quality spin was exposed once again before India showed them how to bat on a flat track by cruising to 135/1 at stumps on day one of the fifth and final Test in Dharamsala on Thursday.
Opting to bat, England were all at sea against the mastery of left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav whose fourth five-wicket haul in Tests allowed India to bowl out the visitors for 218 in their first innings shortly after tea.
Playing his 100th Test, Ravichandran Ashwin cleaned up the tail with four wickets while Ravindra Jadeja took one. Contrary to expectations, all 10 wickets went to the spinners at the scenic HPCA Stadium and the last seven England batters fell while adding only 43 runs.
India came out to bat in bright sunshine and Rohit Sharma (52 not out) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (57) put the hosts in firm control with a 104-run stand. Shubman Gill (26 not out) hit a couple of sixes and as many fours to be unbeaten at stumps.
It was the highest opening stand of this series for India and was broken when Jaiswal got a bit carried away to be stumped off Shoaib Bashir after collecting back-to-back boundaries.
The southpaw's pre-meditated charge down the ground came soon after he became only the second Indian to amass 700 runs in a series after the legendary Sunil Gavaskar, who achieved the feat twice against the West Indies in 1971 and 1978-79.
The ball did not do much for the England pacers and spinners compared to their Indian counterparts.
Jaiswal was watchful to start with and waited for the spinners to be in operation. He put Bashir to sword in his very first over by dispatching him for three sixes into the stands, two of them over extra cover.
The Indian skipper, at the other end, too played confidently. He made his intentions clear by pulling a 150kmph rising delivery off Mark Wood over fine leg for six in the fourth over of the innings. His second maximum came off spinner Tom Hartley in the cow corner region.
Earlier, Kuldeep picked five wickets, while Ashwin claimed four as England were bowled out for 281 on day one of the fifth and final Test in Dharamsala on Thursday.
Kuldeep took 5/72 to engineer a middle-order collapse, while Ashwin cleaned up the lower order with 4/51 while Ravindra Jadeja got one as England collapsed to spin in 57.4 overs shortly after tea on the opening day.
At one stage, England were well-placed on 100/1 courtesy of Zak Crawley, who stroked 79, before the spinners ran through the England batting line-up.
Kuldeep struck with the wickets of Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Crawley, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes to complete his second successive five-wicket haul at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala. Ashwin, playing in his landmark 100th Test, sent back Tom Hartley and Mark Wood in quick session to pile further misery on the visitors.
England suffered a sensational collapse as they lost three wickets without a run being scored to find themselves reeling at 175/6.
The left-arm wrist spinner, who struck twice in the morning, added three more wickets to his tally in the afternoon while Ravichandran Ashwin, playing in his 100th Test, claimed two.
England lost six wickets in 29.3 overs in the post-lunch session session for 94 runs.
Kuldeep could have got rid of Zak Crawley off his second ball of the day but India opted against DRS for a catch down the leg side by wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel.
But the 29-year-old spinner did not have to wait long thereafter as he produced a superb delivery to get rid of England opener, who went for the big drive through the off-side but was done by the big turn as the ball went through the gap between bat and ball to crash into the stumps.
Bairstow (29 off 19), who like Ashwin is playing his 100th Test, showed plenty of intent in his innings but could not last long. Like the other batters, he could not read Kuldeep from his hands and got a faint outside edge off a googly to be caught behind.
He went for a review but ended up wasting it, exactly what Joe Root (26) and Ben Stokes (0) did on the same score of 175. Jadeja trapped Root in front with a straighter one after beating the English batter's outside edge on the previous ball.
Stokes became Kuldeep's fifth victim as he trapped the England captain plumb in front and he also ended up wasting his team's third and final review of the innings.
Ashwin then got into the act as he had Tom Hartley caught at deep midwicket by debutant Devdutt Padikkal for six and two balls later he got Mark Wood caught at slip for a duck.
The veteran spinner finished off England shortly after tea with another double strike. While Ben Foakes missed the sweep and was bowled for 24, James Anderson holed out to Padikkal at midwicket to fall for a duck.
England lost their last seven wickets for 43 runs to collapse from 175/3 to 218 all out.
Crawley struck his fourth half-century of the series, before the right-hander was bowled through the gate by a superb delivery from Kuldeep as the spinner got the ball to turn in sharply. He walked back for 70 as England slipped to 143/3 in 38 overs with all three wickets falling to Kuldeep.
Bairstow, playing his 100th Test, was caught behind off the left-arm spinner for 29 before he bagged the wicket of Stokes.
Ravindra Jadeja also joined in the party as he trapped Joe Root leg before wicket for 26.
Kuldeep had struck twice in the morning session, picking up the wickets of Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope.
Crawley, who has been England's stand-out batter in this series, was meticulous with his shot selection and played some delightful cover drives off the pacers on way to his half-century.
On expected lines, the skillful duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj made the ball talk but Ben Duckett (27) and Crawley were able to play out the first 14 overs bowled by the pace bowlers despite being beaten multiple times.
Siraj ended up bowling eight overs in the morning session and Bumrah seven with both conceding 24 runs.
Ravichandran Ashwin, playing his 100th Test, was the first change before Kuldeep came to bowl in the 18th over.
Despite being hit for two fours off his first five balls, Kuldeep was not afraid to flight the ball and was rewarded as Duckett's mistimed hit was pouched by Shubman Gill, who took a spectacular catch running backwards from covers.
Like Duckett, Crawley too was beaten by the pacers in the first hour of play but he picked the right balls to flaunt his cover drives. He also survived a close DRS call before reaching his fourth half-century of the series with a boundary down the ground.
In the next over, Crawley stepped out to smash Ashwin for a six over long-on.
Kuldeep's second strike came at the stroke of lunch as Ollie Pope (11) stepped out only to be beaten by the Indian spinner's googly and was stumped by wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel.
