India vs England Report: While England were arguably the happier camp going into stumps on Day 1 in Visakhapatnam, it is India who have the game in command by the end of Day 2. India fell four runs short of the 400-run mark in the first innings, but bowling England out for 253 gave them a significant lead.
The day started with Yashasvi Jaiswal converting his overnight score of 179 into a double century to become the third-youngest men’s Test double-centurion for India. He took the aggressive route to get to the landmark but got out for 209, trying to smash the veteran James Anderson. The tailenders barely offered any resistance and India were bowled out for 396, which seemed like an under-par score at that time considering the high-scoring Tests at this venue.
Now it was time for an exciting contest: Indian bowlers against the Bazballing English batters. Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett came out all guns blazing and whacked 32 runs in 6 overs to head into lunch with a solid base.
Even as Duckett got out, caught by Rajat Patidar at silly point after a ball from Kuldeep Yadav bounced a touch extra, Crawley continued with his flurry of boundaries; in fact, he grew more aggressive, taking on the spinners. Crawley raised his half-century in 52 balls and sprinted to 76 off 77 before a sensational catch from Shreyas Iyer, off Axar Patel’s bowling, brought his end.
From thereon, it was time for the Jasprit Bumrah show.
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India vs England Report: Jasprit Bumrah blows away England’s middle-order
Bumrah was simply sensational in the second and third sessions of the day, treating the fans to one of the best spells by a fast bowler in docile Indian conditions. Bumrah first worked over Joe Root and had him nicking before uprooting the middle and leg stumps of Ollie Pope with a booming, inswinging yorker.
He then got Jonny Bairstow, again caught at first slip. Ben Stokes, the England captain, then started to free his arms against the spinners and took them to the boundary. Rohit Sharma brought back Bumrah for the wicket of the England skipper, and the fast bowler delivered, smashing Stokes’ off-stump, leaving the left-hander shrugging at helplessness in front of Bumrah’s genius.
Kuldeep took out Ben Foakes and Rehan Ahmed, while wickets of Hartley and Anderson meant Bumrah completed his 10th five-wicket haul in his 34th Test match. He also became the fastest Indian bowler to take 150 Test wickets in terms of balls.
The most jaw-dropping statistic of the day is that Jasprit Bumrah’s bowling average of 20.28 is now the second-best in the entire history of Test cricket, among bowlers with a minimum of 150 wickets, behind England’s Sydney Barnes, who averaged 16.43.
India took a lead of 143 runs, which got extended to 171, with both Rohit Sharma and Jaiswal remaining not out at stumps.
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