IND v ENG, 2nd Test, Day 5 Review: India completes impressive win at Vizag

At lunch, the hosts India stands on the brink of claiming a much-needed win over England in the second Test match at Vizag. The morning quite effectively belonged to the spinners as they impressed with some terrific and tight bowling. Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were handed extended spells and thus were made to cramp up the England batsmen. However, it was Mohammad Shami and Jayant Yadav who claimed the wickets on the morning as only three wickets separate the Indians from a win.

The day began with Joe Root and Ben Duckett was solid in defense. The solidity only went on to compound the spinners as they simply could not manage to find a way past the batsmen. Ben Duckett was the first to fall on the morning as he was dismissed by the impressive Ravi Ashwin when the southpaw made an attempt to sweep a terribly flighted delivery. While Root played the waiting game, it was Moeen Ali who impressed with much more defensive acumen.

However, once more, it was the second batsman who was beaten by the flight when the ball found its way to Virat Kohli stationed at leg slip. What followed the dismissal was the fact that the Indian spinners were made to toil against two of the best players in the England lineup on the tour thus far. With a few minutes gone, Virat Kohli took the executive decision to toss the ball to Jayant Yadav.

This decision was predicated on the fact that Yadav could perhaps get a wicket. And get a wicket he did. A fantastic delivery from Yadav clipped the off-stump of Ben Stokes as the Indian debutant had the wicket he wanted and the breakthrough he so desperately sought. Jonny Bairstow, clearly the best Test batsman was also making amends with the bat following his failure in the first innings.

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However, it was Joe Root who was to lose his wicket soon after. When he reached the score of 25, Virat Kohli realized, perhaps through good riddance that Root had to be dismissed if India wanted to win the match. Mohammad Shami’s ability to reverse swing the ball was perhaps one of the best assets on the day as he trapped Root leg-before. Even the DRS did not come to Root’s rescue this time around as he had to depart this time around.

Mohammad Shami was far from finished. The next to bear the brunt of Shami was Adil Rashid. The leg-spinner impressed with some impressive bowling, something that dismissed Rashid, to say the least. Thus, the Indians broke for lunch with the score at 142/7.

With three wickets to complete a much-needed win, it was highly unlikely that the England resistance would last any longer than the post-lunch session. Needless to say, the Indian spinners required just the five overs after the lunch interval to complete the 246-run victory.

Ravi Ashwin claimed the first wicket of the afternoon when he removed the impressive Zafar Ansari. The latter would have certainly rendered himself unlucky as the ball kept quite low, something that was very unprecedented. Moreover, Ashwin had pitched it up and the ball had kept low against all odds.

Jonny Bairstow began to play his shots against the spinners with some impressive cuts all across the park. But, the wickets at the other end continued to fall. Jayant Yadav dismissed Stuart Broad shortly after the loss of Ansari when a catch was completed at short-leg.

The DRS once again came to the aid of the Indians when they used it to their advantage to dismiss Stuart Broad leg-before when the latter had reviewed the catch that was completed. The very next delivery brought a close to the Test match quite effectively when James Anderson was trapped once again by Jayant Yadav.

This time around, the DRS was once again used by the Indians as the review was rendered plumb, to say the least. This effectively completed the win as far as the Indians were concerned. The 246-run win also signifies the second biggest win for India over England in Test matches apart from the fact that this is India’s first win at this venue. Thus, the Indians have a 100 percent record at this venue thereby going up in the Test series 1-0 with three matches to play.

Brief Scores:

India, 1st innings: 455 all out

England, 1st innings: 255 all out

India, 2nd inning: 204 all out

England, 2nd innings: 158 all out (A Cook 54; J Yadav 3/30)

Man of the match: Virat Kohli