After bundling the hosts to 255 runs in their second innings on the third day of the second India versus England Test at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Vishakhapatnam, England openers Zak Crawley scored 29 runs off 50 deliveries and Ben Duckett contributed with his 27-ball-28 before losing his wicket to R Ashwin.
Following Duckett’s dismissal, skipper Ben Stokes sent in night-watchman Rehan Ahmed who added 9 runs off 8 balls to England’s account and helped his side reduce the 399-run target to 332. Their scorecard read 67/1 in 14 overs.
Previously, riding on Shubman Gill’s third Test century, and some important contributions from Axar Patel and Ashwin, India’s second innings ended at 255 in 78.3 overs. Gill got a few slices of luck early on and made it count by slamming 104 off 147 balls, his first Test century as a number three batter.
His partnerships of 81 with Shreyas Iyer and then of 89 with Patel (45), followed by a late 29 from Ashwin helped India reach a competitive total but were unable to bat England out of the match. For England, spinners Tom Hartley and Rehan Ahmed picked up seven wickets between themselves as the Indian lower order folded quickly, despite England missing Root due to a finger injury.
The post-tea session saw Rehan strike early as Bharat mistimed his pull to wide mid-on, while Hartley took out Kuldeep Yadav, whose top-edge on slog-sweep was caught at mid-wicket. Ashwin was dropped at slip and bided his time before swatting Rehan down the ground for four, followed by a lofted six in the same region and a four coming via a sweep off the leg-spinner.
The 26-run stand for the ninth wicket was broken when Hartley had Jasprit Bumrah edging to gully and Rehan ended India’s innings in the next over when Ben Foakes took a sharp catch of a faint outside edge coming off Ashwin’s bat, with the hosts losing their last six wickets for 44 runs.
In the morning session, James Anderson made crucial breakthroughs by dismissing Indian skipper Rohit Sharma (scoring 13 off 21) and Yashasvi Jaiswal for 17 runs off 27 balls, who had scored a double-century in the first innings.
Brief scores:
India 396 and 255 in 78.3 overs (Shubman Gill 104, Axar Patel 45; Tom Hartley 4-77, Rehan Ahmed 3-88) lead England 253 and 67/1 in 14 overs (Zak Crawley 29 not out; Ravichandran Ashwin 1-8) by 332 runs
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