Ravichandran Ashwin was back in his element with yet another five-wicket haul, setting up a perfect launchpad for skipper Virat Kohli to extend India's lead to 298 runs against England on the third day of the second cricket Test here.
Courtesy Ashwin's 5 for 67, the first time he has picked so many against England in an innings, India bowled out England for 255 in their first essay to take a commanding lead of 200 runs.
Deciding against enforcing follow-on, India reached 98 for 3 in their second innings at close of play with skipper Kohli once again leading from the front with an attacking 56 off 70 balls. His innings was laced with six boundaries.
First-innings centurion, Kohli, was batting in the company of Ajinkya Rahane (22).
While the pitch has not deteriorated massively, but batting on fourth and fifth day will be trickier and Kohli would like to take charge and set up a target beyond the reach of the visitors, who will be batting fourth.
After an indifferent first session, it was Ashwin, who turned the tables on the visitors with his 22nd five-wicket haul in Test cricket.
The off-spinner faced some challenges but he returned to rip through the tail with wickets in successive deliveries after Ben Stokes (70) and Jonny Bairstow (53) put on 110 runs for the fifth wicket.
With overnight figures of 2 for 20, Ashwin had a lean first spell (9-1-33-0) after he was introduced in the second over of the day, struggling to break the Stokes-Bairstow partnership.
But he returned in the second session and got the balls to grip and skid off the pitch in a fine spell of 7.5-0-14-3, which included the wicket of England top-scorer Stokes, who hit 11 boundaries.
Ashwin now has five-wicket haul against all the Test nations he has played against -- six against New Zealand, four each against Australia, South Africa and West Indies, two against Sri Lanka and one each against Bangladesh and England.
In 2016, the 30-year-old has 52 wickets, two behind Rangana Herath's 54.
The left-hander carried England's survival hopes and found a fine ally in Bairstow (53), who batted brilliantly despite a troubled ankle before being cleaned up by a fullish delivery from Umesh Yadav with 10 minutes to go for the lunch.
With 33 minutes to tea, England's first innings folded for in 102.5 overs with a deficit of exactly 200 runs.
(REOPENS DEL 45)
Karun got some good support today with Ravichandran Ashwin 967) adding 181 runs for the sixth wicket. Ashwin became the first Indian cricket, who has now scored more than 300 runs and taken in excess of 25 wickets in a series.
The 138-run seventh wicket stand with Ravindra Jadeja (51) also enabled Karun to carry on with his attacking mode.
All his four sixes were a treat. Against left-armer Dawson, he stepped out to loft straight. A rising delivery from Stuart Broad (2/80) was given the ramp shot treatment.
Offie Moeen was hit over long-on while a Rashid half-tracker was deposited into the stands.
Resuming at the overnight score of 391-4, Nair and Murali Vijay (29) found the going a bit tough against the duo of Dawson and Stuart Broad.
While Dawson bothered Vijay with his slow deliveries, Broad almost had his man when he induced a slight nick off the Tamil Nadu batsman but umpire Simon Fry felt otherwise and England didn't have any reviews left.
In the next over, Nair blasted Dawson for his first six over long-on, while Vijay picked up a boundary off Ben Stokes behind point in the 121st over.
One over later, Nair sliced Stokes behind point to pick up another boundary and along with it, his maiden Test century. He celebrated the achievement by raising his bat.
Vijay's fall in the 124th over brought Ashwin to the crease and after a few overs, Nair once again repeated his treatment to Stokes, picking up successive boundaries off the bowler to keep the scoreboard ticking.
Ashwin picked up his first boundary when he late cut a Dawson delivery behind point.
Just before lunch, Adil Rashid was introduced into the attack and Nair hit him through extra cover as India took lunch after the 135th over.
The 25-year-old Nair hit 11 fours and a six as he
completed his maiden Test hundred in 217 balls.
Vijay (29), who had come down the order at No. 6, was the only batsman dismissed in the pre-lunch session as Liam Dawson picked up his maiden wicket in the 124th over after trapping him in-front of wicket.
For the England team, it will be a series that their bowlers would like to forget in a hurry.
Their premier spinners conceded in excess of 150 plus runs and the pacers did not have anything to look forward to on a docile track.
While the batsmen made merry, one can always debate whether skipper Kohli could have declared a bit earlier than allowing Karun to reach his triple ton on the day.
Bowling on this placid track is a big challenge and all eyes will be on local boy Ashwin as he requires only two more wickets to complete the fastest 250 wickets in the history of Test cricket.
The burly Tamil Nadu tweaker would ideally like to complete the landmark and not wait till the next Test series against Australia.
Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma may come into play if there is some reverse swing on offer for the bowlers which hasn't exactly been the case during the last four days.
The England team feels that the old SG Test does not reverse as much as they would have liked and mere hit-the-deck bowling may not be that useful on this track.
