India levelled the four-match Test series 1-1 against England after an emphatic 317-run win in the second Test here at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Tuesday.
Indian bowlers produced a sublime performance on Day 4 as England only managed to score 164 runs in their second innings. Axar Patel, who made his Test debut in the match, picked a five-wicket haul during England’s second innings while Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav scalped three and two wickets respectively.
The visitors resumed their second innings from the overnight score of 53/3, chasing a target of 482 runs set by the hosts. England survived six overs before Ravichandran Ashwin struck with his first ball on day four. Ashwin fired the ball down the leg side on seeing Dan Lawrence step out and Rishabh Pant pulled off a brilliant stumping.
Ben Stokes then along with skipper Joe Root played some cautious shots to rebuild the England innings. The partnership survived for 12 overs as Ashwin dismissed the all-rounder, Stokes, in the 38th over. Stokes departed after scoring eight runs off 51 balls as England lost half their side for 90 runs.
Ollie Pope then stitched a 20-run stand with Root to take England over the 100-run mark before he was dismissed by Axar Patel. Kuldeep then got hold of Ben Foakes, reducing England to 116/7. England then suffered a major blow as skipper Root got out.
Root (33) was caught at slip by Ajinkya Rahane off Axar Patel’s delivery. Moeen Ali smashed three consecutive sixes to Axar Patel in the 52nd over. However, Kuldeep got hold of Moeen, who scored 43 off just 18 balls, and with this, England’s second innings came to an end.
Earlier, Ashwin’s scintillating century helped India set England a target of 482 runs at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Monday. Ashwin played a knock of 106 runs before the hosts were bowled out for 286 in the final session of day three.
After suffering a humiliating defeat, England skipper Joe Root admitted that India outplayed them in all three departments. “Credit to India, they outplayed us in all three departments. It has been an education for us, you could come up with conditions like these and we have to learn from this and find a way to score runs. We need to learn to build pressure and bowl six balls at one batsman. On day one we could have been a bit tighter, squeeze the game a bit more and make it harder for them to score,” Root told host broadcaster Star Sports.
“From Day 2 it was a very difficult wicket to bat on. But we have got to be smarter about how we’re building an innings. We are 1-1 and we are excited about the next two games given the way we played in the first game. We could’ve played that extra spinner, it is always easy to look at balancing a side at the end of the game. It will be different again when we turn up for the third game which will be a day-nighter, and very exciting last two games,” he added.
India skipper Virat Kohli, however, said that the toss wouldn’t have mattered much in the game. “The conditions were challenging for both sides, but we showed more application with the bat. We didn’t panic out there looking at the turn and bounce, we showed grit, got into the game and scored 600 runs in the game. We know our bowlers would do the job for us if we put up these runs,” Kohli told host broadcaster Star Sports.
“The toss wouldn’t have mattered much in this game to be honest, because if you looked at our second innings, we got 300 as well. It wasn’t unfair if the toss went either way. Both teams should be in the game from the first session onwards, whether it is on spinning to seaming tracks, and that exactly was the case in this game,” he added.
Brief scores: India 329 and 286; England 134 and 164 (Moeen Ali 43, Joe Root 33; Axar Patel 5/60).
