Chennai: A dominant India thrashed England by 317 runs in the second Test to level the four-match series 1-1 and boost their chances of making it to the ICC World Test Championship final, here on Tuesday.
India needed 7 wickets on Tuesday to register a win after losing the first match by a massive 227-run margin at the same venue.
Chasing an improbable 482-run target for victory, England were bowled out for 164 in their second innings, with Axar Patel taking a five-wicket haul on debut.
With this win, India moved up to No 2 in the World Test Championship standings. On the other hand, England, who were leading the table, slipped all the way down to fourth in the standings.
Earlier, the visitors resumed the fourth morning 53/3. Dan Lawrence and Root, the overnight batsmen, employed different methods to tackle the spinners but unfortunately for England, it didn’t take long for the opening wicket.
Six overs into the day, Lawrence was dismissed stepped out to Ashwin and India had their first of the day.
Ben Stokes came in thereafter, and resisted India alongside Root. They put on 24 for the fifth wicket, which was England’s longest partnership of the day, but Ashwin was again at it, dismissing Stokes a second time in the match.
Ollie Pope and Ben Foakes fell within a few overs of each other, Axar and Kuldeep Yadav claiming the wicket, and England were reduced to 116/7 by Lunch.
It didn’t take India long after the restart to nip England out. Axar had Root dismissed and he quickly followed that up with the scalp of Olly Stone.
With just one wicket remaining, Moeen adopted a carefree approach and went after the spinners. He scored an entertaining 18-ball 43, hitting five sixes and three fours, but it only served to delay the inevitable – Kuldeep had him stumped and India had their victory.
Dominant India thrash England by 317 runs in Chennai, level series 1-1
