A spot in the final of the World Test championship was at stake and something extra special was needed from Virat Kohli and Co. Team India just did what they had to and produced a stellar performance to register a brilliant 317-run victory on Day 4 of the 2nd Test match against England in Chennai.
This win has levelled the 4-Match series 1-1 and now the remaining two Tests will decide the fortune of Team India.
India needed 7 wickets on the final day of the match to register a win after losing the first match by a massive 227-run margin. Batting on a spinner-friendly wicket for 2 days and scoring 429 runs was always going to be a tough task for Joe Root-led side.
R Ashwin first dismissed Daniel Lawerence (26) after a brilliant stumping from Rishabh Pant. He then went on to get rid of Ben Stokes‘ (8 off 51), the most dangerous player of England. Virat Kohli leaped forward to take a stunning catch at second slip as the star all-rounder fell to Ashwin for the 10th time in Test career.
England was only recovering from R Ashwin’s deadly bowling before Axar Patel came in the show and set the stage on fire. The debutant dismissed a sweeping Ollie Pope for 12 before Kuldeep Yadav joined the party and sent back Ben Stokes for just 2 runs. The wicket was Kuldeep Yadav’s first in the format since January 2019.
When the teams walked off for lunch England’s scorecard read 117 for 7.
Skipper Joe Root (33) kept one end tight in the morning session but struggled to handle the ball from Patel that bounced a bit too much and was caught in the slip region.
Once Root was back in the pavilion, it was not difficult for India to wrap up the proceedings though Moeen Ali hit an attacking 43. With this win, India moves to second spot on ICC World Test Championship points table.
Here’s How Twitter Reacted:
