India vs England | Hosts take the lead as spinners wrap-up England in a jiffy
Three wickets each for Ashwin and Jayant Yadav helped India bowl out England for 158 on the 5th day of the 2nd Test at Vizag and take a 1-0 lead in the series. Joe Root fought a lone battle for a while, but the English middle-order crumbled like a house of cards to present India with a 246-run win.
Brief Scores:India 455 and 204 won against England 255 and 158 (Cook 54, Bairstow 34; Jayant Yadav 3/30, Ashwin 3/52)
Ashwin and Jadeja take England’s middle-order apart
Resuming their innings from their overnight score of 87/2, England were down for the count by the lunch break as Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja spun a web around them. Joe Root, who was England’s best hope of seeing this through, received an early life from Virat Kohli when the Indian skipper failed to grab on to a catch at leg-slip off Ashwin’s bowling.
However, it did not take long for the off-spinner to make his mark as he dismissed the troubled Ben Duckett once again – this time for a duck. The southpaw, who has a flawed technique against off-spinning deliveries, opted for aggression this time and went for a sweep. But the extra bounce from the over-spin meant the ball took his glove before looping up for an easy catch for Wriddhiman Saha.
Root survived another scare in the 67th over when the umpire gave him caught behind off Ashwin’s bowling. However, an instant review by the Englishman overturned the decision after replays showed that there was no edge.
At the other end, Jadeja kept probing with his consistent line and length, and it paid dividends as he dismissed Moeen Ali with a delivery that bounced viciously off a foot-mark and took the shoulder of his bat for an easy to Kohli. Root kept grinding away at the other end but he was soon running out of partners.
Shami removes England’s last hope
Root and Stokes tried to steady the ship, but their partnership was broken by a peach of a delivery by Jayant Yadav. The spinner bowled a quicker delivery with a flat trajectory which initially drifted in towards Stokes, before turning away sharply to dismantle his off-stump.
In the next over, Mohammed Shami produced the wicket India were desperately looking for – Joe Root. A late in-swinger from Shami trapped Root in front of the stumps and the umpire raised his finger promptly. Although the call was reviewed by England, the
With Root dismissed, and England stuttering at 115/6, Jonny Bairstow decided to open up his arms and produced some hefty blows for an innings of 34, but Ashwin and Yadav cleaned up the tailenders at the other end to wrap up England’s innings at 158, giving India a massive 246-run win.