India vs England, 5th Test Report: Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow Help England Register Record Chase, Beat India By 7 Wickets

While Joe Root remained unbeaten on 142, Jonny Bairstow scored 114 not out as England chased down a record 378 runs vs India in fifth Test.

Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root, who have made chasing tricky targets in Test matches fashionable, put famed Indian pace attack to sword with imposing hundreds as England recorded their highest ever chase of 378 runs with minimum fuss to level the five-match series 2-2. It is fourth straight successful chase for England, having accomplished tricky fourth innings targets of 278, 299, 296 against New Zealand in the previous series. For India, the ignominy was of not being able to defend their highest fourth innings target.

When England were rattled on the fourth afternoon by stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah, the two star batters didn't waver from their game plan. The entire Indian attack, except Bumrah, looked pedestrian. All England needed was just under 20 overs to knock off the remaining 119 runs on fifth morning.

What was more embarrassing was England knocking off the runs in 76.4 overs, which isn't even a full day's play and at a run-rate of nearly five runs per over (4.93).

Root (142 not out), who has been in even more sublime form since relinquishing captaincy, scored his 28th century and was involved in an unbroken 269-run stand with Bairstow (114 not out), whose ton count reached a dozen after the completion of this game.

Bairstow, who is in the form of his life, topped up his first innings of 106 with an even more graceful century as Brendon McCullum's philosophy of deflating teams on flat decks is currently working wonders.