India neutralise Bazball to level series

First innings hero Jasprit Bumrah was the star of the show in the second too, bagging 3/46.

Visakhapatnam: England pacer James Anderson on Sunday evening delivered a jibe at the Indian team, saying his team would need just 60-70 overs to chase down the remaining score of the 399-run target. Well, the veteran’s forecast came true somewhat, England’s innings lasted 69.2 overs on Monday. The result though was different, India coasting to a 106-run win to level the series 1-1.

England, resuming on 67/1, brought their Bazball to the fore yet again and almost threatened to pull off a record run-chase on the fourth day of the second Test at the Dr YSR ACA-VDCA Stadium.

But the seasoned Indian bowling attack stuck to its plans, delivering hammer blow after hammer blow, especially in the second hour, to eventually dismiss England for 292 on the stroke of tea. 

First innings hero Jasprit Bumrah was the star in the second too, bagging 3/46, while ace spinner R Ashwin rediscovered his mojo with a 3/72 effort. Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Mukesh too bagged a wicket each in what was a complete team effort although it was the overall brilliance of Bumrah that proved to be the difference maker. The Gujarati deservedly was adjudged the Player of the Match, despite the young Yashasvi Jaiswal scoring a superb 209 in the first innings.

England’s overnight batters Zak Crawley and nightwatchman Rehan Ahmed meant business from the get-go. They chose caution to Bumrah, who kept dishing out some unplayable deliveries but sunk into Axar, literally finding one or two boundaries every over. Skipper Rohit Sharma started to grow a little tense while Axar, despite getting the odd ball to turn sharply, was struggling to contain the run-flow. Despite the barrage, Rohit stuck with Axar and he was rewarded with a wicket as the left-arm spinner trapped Rehan leg-before with a faster one.

England, undeterred by the loss of a wicket, stuck to their mantra of all-out attack. Crawley, using his feet brilliantly against the spinners, carted Axar for three successive boundaries and with Ollie Pope, who scored a game-changing 196 in the opening Hyderabad Test, too going great guns, India were under the pump again. Then the magic of Rohit brought India back. Pope tried to cut Ashwin but with the ball being too close, he ended up edging. Rohit struck his hand out at slip, almost catching the ball past him. 

India rejoiced but Joe Root came in and continued the assault. It was a very unlike Root innings as he almost played like a pinch-hitter, literally looking to smash every ball out of the park. Two of his first three shots were reverse sweeps off Ashwin, the plan clearly to unsettle the offie and other spinners. 

Ashwin, a veteran of such one-on-one battles, was game for it. Almost sensing Root would step down the track, which the Yorkshireman did, Ashwin shortened his length a bit. Root, nowhere close to the pitch of the ball, still went through the slog and to his dismay caught a leading edge, Axar completing a simple catch as England were reduced to 154/4.

England, who believe they can chase down any target in the Brendon McCullum-Ben Stokes era, kept going strong even after those dismissals. Crawley continued to play the attacking game and his partner Jonny Bairstow, a good player of spin, fired constantly from the other end. Not only did he steady the ship but they injected fresh life into the chase.

Then came the magic of Bumrah just before lunch and a piece of outstanding fielding from Shreyas Iyer post the break to swing the match firmly India’s way. Bumrah dismissed Bairstow with an in-swinger in the last over before lunch and then Iyer caught Stokes short of the crease with an exceptional throw from midwicket to reduce England to 220/7. Bumrah was back to clean up the tail, India happy to have got the job done.