Spin turns it India's way at Vizag

Ashwin, Jayant strike as Kohli's men inflict 246-run defeat on England to take 1-0 lead

Notwithstanding Alastair Cook and Haseeb Hameed’s marathon vigil at the crease on the penultimate day and the resultant confidence England would have drawn from that resistance, Stuart Broad’s assertion that England could save the second Test appeared a bit wishful.

Firstly, when the English batsmen were put through such a test of skill against spin in Bangladesh not too long ago, they had lost 10 wickets in a single session to lose the match. Secondly, the pitch for this match wasn’t as bland as the one rolled out for the first Test in Rajkot.

And with two of their batsmen, who could wear the attack gone, England’s task of escaping the defeat was a near impossible mission but they would have disappointed themselves for not even putting up a fight. The tourists -- overnight 87/2 in pursuit of hosts’ 405-run target -- lost their remaining eight wickets for the addition of just 71 runs as India emerged a convincing 246-run winner here at the YSR ACA-VDCA Stadium on Monday.

England’s innings lasted just 20 minutes into the post-lunch session with debutant Jayant Yadav (3/30) accounting for last man James Anderson via DRS. While England batted for 221 minutes on Sunday’s fourth day losing only two wickets in the process, the rest of the batting lasted 141 minutes on the final day as India won only their third Test in 15 tries against Cook’s men since 2011.     
 
Without being diabolical, the strip here kept the bowlers interested, offering turn and variable bounce for the spinners and a hint of reverse swing for the pacers on the fourth and fifth days. Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohammad Shami have become past masters in exploiting such conditions though the two ply different trades.

Wrecker-in-chief
Ashwin was once again the wrecker-in-chief, setting in the early rot and finishing with a match haul of 8/119. Impressive as his figures of 3/52 were in the second innings, they don’t quite reflect the quality of his bowling. He was getting lovely drift and made subtle variations in pace, and coupled with a few tricks that the fifth day pitch itself offered, he was an irresistible force against the crumbling resistance of England.

Even England’s most assured batsman against spin at the moment, Joe Root, struggled to cope with Ashwin’s guile, often beaten and surviving a tough caught-out chance at short-leg.

Ben Duckett’s misery against Ashwin, however, continued as the southpaw fell for the off-spinner for the third time in as many innings. Unsure of how to tackle his tormentor, Duckett went for a nervous pull only to see the ball bounce off his pad to stumper Wriddhiman Saha after taking a bottom edge.

Centurion in the Rajkot match, Moeen Ali fell for a second low score of the match when he edged Ravindra Jadeja (2/35) to Kohli at backward short-leg. Jayant, who replaced Jadeja from the Subbarao end, then struck gold when he removed Ben Stokes with a peach of a delivery. Even as Stokes went back to defend a quicker delivery, it shaped away just enough to beat his bat and clatter the top of off-stump to leave the left-hander shaking his head.        
         
Shami was brought in for the first time on the day from the other end, replacing Ashwin who had an impressive first spell -- 11-6-17-1. The paceman working up good pace and extracting movement in the air, struck in his first over by catching Root in front. The batsman reviewed the decision but the inswinger was shown to be hitting the leg-stump flush. Adil Rashid fell to a moment of daftness as the batsman tried to steer the short ball over to third man fence but all he could manage was a thin edge to Saha.

The visitors went for lunch at 142 for seven and England’s defeat now was just a matter of when rather than if. Post-lunch, Ashwin cleaned up Zafar Ansari with one that kept a bit low and Jayant dismissed Stuart Broad and Anderson off successive balls to put England out of their misery and give India a 1-0 lead going into the third Test in Mohali beginning November 26.

Virat Kohli, who did a big favour to his side by winning the crucial toss, was declared the man of the match for his knocks of 167 and 81.