Indian bowlers won an engrossing battle against England's firebrand batting for a series-levelling 106-run victory in the second Test at Visakhapatnam on Monday, blunting 'Bazball' with their resilience in a roller-coaster contest.
England began day four at 67 for one, chasing a record target of 399. They were bowled out for 292 in the extended afternoon session.
The visiting team's no-holds-barred approach, which has largely been successful, did not work on this occasion as India picked up nine wickets over the course of two sessions to bounce back in the five-match series. The third Test will be played in Rajkot from February 15.
Only Zak Crawley's (73 off 132 balls) strategy worked before the collective efforts of Jasprit Bumrah (3/46), R Ashwin (3/71), Axar Patel (1/75), and Kuldeep Yadav (1/60) yielded the desired results for the hosts, who were under pressure going into day four.
Bumrah picked up the Player of the Match honours for his overall haul of nine wickets in the game, ahead of young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, who scored a crucial 209-run knock in India's first innings. "He (Bumrah) is a champion player for us," reiterated captain Rohit Sharma.
After James Anderson claimed that India were nervous while batting in the second innings and did not know a safe target to counter 'Bazball', England walked the talk on Monday and went ballistic.
"Coming into this last innings, (we) had full belief in ourselves that we'll chase it down," England skipper Ben Stokes said at the end of the game. His team would have been better served taking a cue from Crawley, who saw out an intense morning spell from Bumrah before going for his strokes.
But Ben Foakes (36) and Tom Hartley (36) frustrated the visitors with a 55-run partnership for the eighth wicket.
Crawley, by far the best batter on show, was adjudged LBW off Kuldeep with a close DRS call. On the sixth ball of his first over, Kuldeep got one to turn back in from the middle stump. It seemed the ball was going down the leg, but DRS showed that it was hitting the leg stump.
