G. Krishnan
Visakhapatnam, Feb 6:
There were moments on Day 4 when India seemed to give easy runs and an England win was a possibility. But, Jasprit Bumrah delivered whenever he was brought into the attack, or so he seemed. He was the only bowler who looked like taking wickets, putting pressure on the England batsmen and put them on the back foot.
With a nine-day break, the Test series resumes in Rajkot on February 15 and it is only going to get more exciting. England’s way of entertaining the crowd is their style of batting while India have the wherewithal to win Tests even if there is no Virat Kohli, K.L. Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami.
Bumrah’s three second wickets for 46 on Monday to go with his first innings 6/45 for a match haul of 9 for 91 gave India a victory by 106 runs and level the Test series 1-1 with three more to go. Chasing 399 to win in a little over two days, which meant England had more than 180 overs to score them and go 2-0 up, England continued their attacking approach and not a cautious one. In the process, they were bowled out for 292.
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who took the first wicket of Ben Duckett on Sunday evening, added two to his tally on Day 4 to take his career tally to 499. Ashwin will have to wait till Rajkot for that one wicket to reach the milestone of 500 Test wickets.
Opener Zak Crawley continued his good form in the series to post a second half-century in this Test. Though at the start of Day 4, he was beaten umpteen times by Bumrah, lucky to not take the edge a few times while the ball zoomed past his stumps on other occasions. However, Crawley got into the groove and played his first attacking shot of the morning against Bumrah, driving him to the left of mid-off fielder.
While player of the match Bumrah was troubling the overnight batsmen, left-arm spinner Axar Patel, who shared the bowling duty in the first hour with Bumrah, gave away runs aplenty. His morning spell read 13-0-65-1, the wicket of nightwatchman Rehan Ahmed trapped leg before.
Ashwin bagged two wickets in successive overs, Ollie Pope caught brilliantly by Rohit Sharma at first slip. It was more of a reflex catch, going to his left, to an edge that just flew off the bat, giving Ashwin wicket No. 498. In his next over, Joe Root, who hit two fours and a six and was in a hurry to finish things off, fell to a bad shot, unexpected from a batsman of the calibre of Root. He blindly stepped out and hoicked Ashwin, the leading edge going to Axar Patel at backward point, becoming the ace spinner’s victim No. 499.
In search of his 500th wicket, Ashwin tried hard, but just did not come. Captain Sharma had to win the Test than go for a personal milestone. It was then that Bumrah took the first of his three wickets, trapping Jonny Bairstow while a brilliant piece of fielding got Ben Stokes run out, Shreyas Iyer’s pick up and throw at the striker’s end catching him short.
Ben Foakes and Tom Hartley shared 55 for the eighth wicket before the former was foxed by a slower one from Bumrah and tapped it back to the bowler for a return catch. It was a matter of time before England folded up, Mukesh Kumar, the surprise selection for this Test, got his only wicket of the match when Shoaib Bashir edged him behind and Bumrah castled Hartley to signal India’s victory just at around tea time.
Bumrah’s match figures is the second best by an Indian against England after Chetan Sharma’s 10/188 in Edgbaston in 1986. It is also Bumrah’s second best match figures as well as the best by an Indian pacer against England at home, putting behind Amar Singh’s 8/141 in Chennai in 1934. England’s 292 is the second highest fourth innings total by a visiting side in India
