England collapse in Visakhapatnam

After four days of riveting action, where no quarter was asked for and none given at the ACA-VDCA YSR Stadium, India are better placed to deliver the knock-out punch on the final day as England look to stonewall in their quest for a draw.

“When you have 400 runs on the board it is not easy to chase in India”.

It’s all over for England! Having made an impressive debut, Jayant Yadav struck with the new ball as he bowled a beauty to clean up Ben Stokes (6).

Indian spinners came to the party as the hometeam thumped England by 246 runs in the second Test on day five in Visakhapatnam on Monday.

Broad, seemingly untroubled by a foot injury which has put his participation in the third Test in doubt, earlier produced a magnificent probing spell and Rashid impressed once again in the morning session after India resumed on 98-3.

Nearing the end of the final session there wereexchange of worlds between Joe Root and the close-in fielders.

On India wasting its two reviews in the first 80 overs of the England second innings, Pujara said, “It was the right call because we wanted to get wickets”. Kohli would be delighted with that dismissal.

That came quickly enough, despite Jonny Bairstow’s quick innings of 34 n.o. Superb performance from him in his first Test.

Ashwin, who took his 22nd five-wicket haul in the first innings, cleaned up Zafar Ansari for a duck after lunch and Yadav dismissed Stuart Broad and James Anderson leg before in successive balls to end the innings.

The spinners were able to extract good amount of turn on the penultimate day while the occasional ball kept low, causing a lot of problems for the batsmen. Root failed to have the decision overturned on review. One or two balls from Ashwin bounced, from the rough. Bowling from over the wicket, Jadeja got one to just bounce a touch more while pitching it off the rough and a bat-pad fell into the lap of Virat Kohli at leg-slip.

It left England 87-2 and needing to bat out another 90 overs to save the match.

England was 87-2 in its second innings at stumps after nearly 60 overs as it chases an improbable target of 405 – another 318 runs – for victory with one day left.

The loss of Hameed and then Cook with four balls of the day’s play remaining represented a huge blow to the tourists on an otherwise positive day, although Broad is refusing to accept a 1-0 series deficit is a foregone conclusion. They did in no time by dismissing England’s tail. Ravichandran Ashwin was India’s pick of the bowlers with eights wickets, while the other scalps were shared between Ravindra Jadeja (3), Jayant Yadav (4), Mohammed Shami (3) and Umesh Yadav (1).