Jasprit Bumrah claimed three for 46 as India hit back to win the second Test against England by 106 runs and level the series at 1-1.
The tourists went into day four on 67 for one as they attempted to chase down 399 for victory. It seemed an improbable chase but, on a good pitch, England had their chances – several batters getting in only to fail to build on promising starts.
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Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin took wickets at regular intervals, Ashwin doing the damage early with Bumrah dismantling the middle and lower order to ensure there was no late drama.
At 132 for two, England were very much in the game – first Test hero Ollie Pope and Crawley going along nicely. However, the Surrey man played back to a full length delivery from Ashwin and only succeeded in nicking off to Rohit Sharma, who took an excellent catch.
Ashwin also accounted for Joe Root (16), who perhaps struggling with a finger injury, came out throwing the bat. He succeeded a couple of times but then played an ugly shot which ballooned to Axar Patel at backward point.
Crawley continued to play nicely at the other end but his innings ended on 73, snared leg before wicket by Kuldeep Yadav.
Jonny Bairstow (26) and Ben Stokes (11) played with uncharacteristic caution in a ploy that failed to reap dividends – the England captain run out sloppily after jogging through for a quick single and being caught short by Shreyas Iyer.
Ben Foakes (36) and Tom Hartley (36) put on 55 for the eighth wicket, showing a nice mix of aggression and solid defence. Having pushed the score on to 275 and within 124 of victory, India may have been starting to feel a little edgy but Bumrah returned to end any lingering nerves.
He got Foakes caught and bowled and, once Shoaib Bashir came and went, produced a wonderful reverse outswinger to remove Hartley’s off-stump.
We fall short in our chase in Vizag
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India captain Sharma was delighted his patched-up side, missing the likes of Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja, found a way back into the series.
He said: “When you win a game like that you have to look at the overall performance. We know that winning a Test match in these conditions is not going to be easy, the bowlers stepped up.
“This win gives us a lot of confidence. I’m very proud of such a young squad, to come up against a team like that, it’s a good challenge.
“England have been playing good cricket and it’s not going to be an easy series. Three more games to go, we need to make sure we do most things right.”
England have won games from seemingly impossible positions since Stokes became captain and the Durham all-rounder was confident they could do it again in Visakhapatnam.
He said: “We had full belief in ourselves that we could chase that down. The way we have gone about taking on challenges like that is what we are about.
“In moments like that, when you have scoreboard pressure, that is when we get the best out of ourselves as individuals. The way we applied ourselves and put India under pressure was great, unfortunately we didn’t end up on the right side of the result.”
The third Test takes place in Rajkot on February 15.
