Team India on Monday, 5 February secured a convincing 106-run victory over England on the fourth day of the second Test in the India versus England series at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Vishakhapatnam.
Despite England's commendable effort to chase a challenging target of 399, the task proved to be an uphill battle, leading to their dismissal for 292 in 69.2 overs. Bumrah, who played a crucial role in giving India a significant 171-run first-innings lead with his remarkable figures of 6/45, once again stood out with a spell of 3/46 in the second innings.
Bumrah concluded the Visakhapatnam Test with impressive match figures of 9-91, marking the second-best performance by an Indian fast bowler against England. Ashwin contributed effectively with figures of 3/101, leaving him just one wicket away from reaching the milestone of 500 Test scalps.
In a noteworthy comeback from their 28-run defeat in Hyderabad, India displayed resilience in Visakhapatnam, securing an emphatic series-levelling victory, with Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, and Mukesh Kumar each claiming a wicket.
India defeated England by 106 runs in the second Test.
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Rehan became the first wicket to fall for England on Day 4 when he was trapped plumb lbw by Axar in front of the middle-stump. Ollie Pope hit the ground running with his sweep and reverse-sweep off Axar for boundaries. Crawley got his second fifty of the match in 83 balls after dancing down the pitch to chip Axar over mid-off for four.
Pope was at his determined best, sweeping, glancing and using his feet to take three fours off Axar. But his lively innings ended when he looked to play away with hard hands off the backfoot and only managed to get a thick outside edge to the left of Rohit Sharma at first slip, who was alert enough to take a reflex catch.
Joe Root, batting with an injured right little finger, was attacking from the word go – reverse-sweeping twice in his first four balls for boundaries off Ashwin, before smacking Axar over long-off for six. His frenetic knock ended when he miscued a slog off Ashwin and the thick top-edge was caught by short third man.
Bairstow continued to look solid, driving Axar through and sweeping off Ashwin to get boundaries. While Crawley smacked Ashwin down the ground for four, Bairstow cut the off-spinner for a boundary. The return of Bumrah didn’t deter Bairstow, who brought out the extra cover drive and punch through point to get two cracking boundaries.
But the momentum swung back in India’s favour in the last ten minutes before lunch. Crawley was trapped lbw on backfoot against Kuldeep Yadav, with replays showing the ball hitting leg-stump. Bumrah ended the session when his nip-backer trapped Bairstow lbw, with the review showing the ball clipping top of leg-stump, as India walked off in high spirits after pushing England on the backfoot.
On Day 3 of the game, riding on Shubman Gill’s third Test century, and some important contributions from Axar Patel and Ashwin, India’s second innings ended at 255 in 78.3 overs.
With inputs from IANS.
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