JACK Leach and Joe Root worked wonders to get England back into contention in the third Test against India... only for the hosts to race to a 10-wicket victory inside two days in Ahmedabad.

Two-day finishes are rare for a reason - there have been only six others in the last 75 years - and it took a mixture of fine bowling, deeply flawed batting and a pitch unsuitable for long-form matches to add to that list.

England have been frustrated by the surfaces and some of the umpiring, but could hardly complain about the result having lost all 20 wickets for 193 and lasted less than 80 overs across two innings.

Things had looked very different earlier on Thursday, as Somerset's Leach (4-54 off 20 overs) combined with Root's part-time spin to create an unexpected note of optimism.

But the conditions that had allowed the England skipper to take scarcely believable figures of 5-8 off 6.2 overs soon left his own batsmen on the canvas - all out for just 81.

Axar Patel took 5-32 to finish with a match haul of 11, with Ravichandran Ashwin bagging 4-48, including his 400th Test wicket for India.

Left needing just 49 to take a 2-1 series lead, Rohit Sharma charged for the line and ended things with a booming six off Root, whose side cannot now qualify for the World Test Championship final.

India had begun the day on 99-3 in reply to their opponent's 112, with Leach having taken two of the Indian wickets to fall on day one.

Soon he was showing just why he got the nod as the sole spinner in England's attack for this match, trapping Ajinkya Rahane (7) and Rohit (66) lbw to reduce the hosts to 115-5.

Without another specialist spinner, Root stepped up himself and promptly snapped up three wickets without conceding a run - including that of the dangerous Rishabh Pant (1) with his very first delivery.

Root went on to win the race with Leach to complete a five-fer, with Ashwin (17) and Jasprit Bumrah (1) falling into his trap.

All out for 145, India had a surprisingly small first-innings lead of 33 runs - but smiles would soon return to the home fans' faces.

Patel was relentless, bowling Zak Crawley and Jonny Bairstow inside the first three balls of the innings.

England were still in arrears when Dom Sibley followed but Root and Ben Stokes shared a precarious stand of 31 to ensure there would be some sort of chase.

The pair joined the long list of lbw victims, however, Ashwin getting Stokes (25) for the 11th time in Tests and Patel finally worming his way through Root's (19) defence.

Ollie Pope (12) and Jofra Archer (0) followed, bringing Leach in at 68-7.

He and Ben Foakes survived for five overs, Leach clubbing a six, but Foakes (8) was trapped lbw, Leach (9) was caught by Rahane, and the end came after just 30.4 overs.

Rohit (25*) and Shubman Gill (15*) raced to the finish line in just 7.4 overs, as Leach (0-15 off four) and Root (0-25 off 3.4) tried in vain to create some drama - India completing the quickest Test win since 1935.

The fourth and final Test in the series starts on Thursday, March 4, again in Ahmedabad.