Ravichandran Ashwin sounded a warning bell for the English batsmen ahead of the five-Test series with a superb match-turning spell of 6 for 27 as Surrey bundled out Somerset for 69 in their second innings of the English County Championship contest here.
Looking to get some quality match practice ahead of joining the Indian in Durham on Thursday, Ashwin did more than enough with 58 overs under his belt and a match haul of 7 for 127.
If the first innings was used towards about building bowling workload and hitting the good areas, the second innings was more about showing his skill-sets with the famous carrom ball bamboozling opposition batsmen. In fact, the veteran off-spinner bowled 15 unchanged overs with the new Dukes and got able support from left arm spinner Dan Moriarty who took 4 for 20 as Somerset were all out for 69 in only 29.1 overs after scoring 429 in their first essay.
Ashwin ran through the opposition getting enough drift and also using the carrom ball and off-breaks judiciously.
Left-handed opener Steven Davis edged one to wicketkeeper Jamie Smith while Jaden Clark caught Tom Lammonby. Skipper and first innings centurion James Hildreth was adjudged plumb in-front when he missed a straighter one.
The difference from first innings was extra bounce that Ashwin got off the pitch and one such flighted delivery, turned a shade and bounced enough to fool George Bartlett who shouldered arms.