India beat England by 106 runs to level the five-match Test series 1-1

India bowled out England for 292 on Day 4 of the second Test at Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam to win the match by 106 runs and level the five-match series 1-1.

Chasing 399 for a win, England continued to play with the Bazball approach. They were on the attack for most of the innings and did not let the Indian bowlers settle. However, Ravichandran Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah, with all their experience and bag full of tricks, were too good for England. Ashwin (3/46), who went wicketless in the first innings and Bumrah (3/72), who scalped six wickets in the first innings, were the most successful bowlers for India in the final innings as they claimed three wickets apiece.

England’s opening batter Zak Crawley, who had struck a half-century in the first innings, was the top run scorer for his team with a brilliant 73 from 132 balls, including eight fours and a six. Besides Crawley, no other England batters could play a noteworthy knock.

Like Ben Duckett (28), who was dismissed towards the end of Day 3, Rehan Ahmed (23), Ollie Pope (23), and Jonny Bairstow (26) got starts but failed to convert them into big scores on Day 4. Joe Root, who smashed two fours and a six in his entertaining cameo of 16 runs from 10 balls, perished without hurting the opposition much. Captain Ben Stokes (11), who had compiled 47 runs in the first innings, found himself short of the crease in trying to steal a single but was outdone by Shreyas Iyer’s fielding. Towards the end, wicket-keeper-batter Ben Foakes and Tom Hartley fought hard but were dismissed after scoring 36 runs each.  

India took 69.2 overs to bowl out England for 292, which is now the second-highest fourth-innings score by a visiting team in India. Bumrah won the player of the match award for registering match figures of 9/91.