Jasprit Bumrah took nine wickets in the match to bowl India to a convincing 106 run victory in the second Test against England in Visakhapatnam on Monday, February 5, 2024.
Chasing a stiff 399, England's batters continued with their Bazball tactics. They gave India a tough fight with their attacking display with the bat before they were bowled out for 292 in their second innings.
India will be particularly delighted that they leveled the series at 1-1 despite missing Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, K L Rahul and Mohammed Siraj.
Young turks Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill made the difference with the bat, while Bumrah was devastating with the ball.
A look at India's game-changers in Vizag:
Jasprit Bumrah
Bumrah turned the match on its head with a sensational six wicket haul in the first innings.
England had made a fiery start as openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett started off aggressively to put on 114 runs for the opening wicket.
Duckett and Crawley perished to Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel respectively before Bumrah ripped apart the England middle order in a reverse swing masterclass -- perhaps the best spell by a fast bowler in Indian conditions.
He bamboozled the experienced Joe Root with a brilliant mix of inswingers and outswingers before he finally caved in by edging it to the slips.
Ollie Pope was cleaned by a lethal yorker which swung in late and sneaked under his bat to crash into the stumps before he got Jonny Bairstow caught in the slips.
Bumrah's delivery to get rid of Ben Stokes was special. The England captain was stunned as the pacer produced a cracking delivery to swing sharply into Stokes to beat the inside edge and crash into the stumps to become the fastest Indian pacer to 150 Test wickets.
He got James Anderson leg before wicket to finish off England's first innings on 253. The visitors lost nine wickets for 139 runs to concede India a decisive first innings lead of 143
In the second innings too, Bumrah made the difference with the ball. England despite losing wickets kept themselves in the hunt for the 399 run target with their positive strokeplay. At one point they needed 205 runs with five wickets in hand.
Kuldeep got the well-set Crawley's wicket for 73 before Bumrah worked his magic again. Jonny Bairstow was beaten all ends up by the incoming delivery to be given out leg before wicket for 26.
Ben Foakes and Tom Hartley defied the Indians with a 55 run stand before Bumrah deceived the former with a well-disguised slower ball to get him caught and bowled for 36.
Fitting, Bumrah ended the match in grand style bowling Hartley with another incredible delivery to bowl the left-hander for 36 and power India to victory.
Yashasvi Jaiswal
Jaiswal smashed his maiden double century to power India to a huge 396 in the first innings.
Jaiswal's 209 proved crucial as no other India batter could even get past 40. If not for his splendid knock, India might have struggled to get even 300.
The 22 year old, playing in his sixth Test, showed great maturity to mix aggression with defence and guide India towards safety despite wickets falling at the other end.
He brought up his 200 with a boundary off 277 balls, sweeping debutant off-spinner Shoaib Bashir for a boundary.
At 22 years and 37 days, Jaiswal is only behind Vinod Kambli and Sunil Gavaskar on the list of youngest Indian batters to score 200 runs in Test cricket.
Shubman Gill
Gill finally ended his run of poor scores in Test cricket with a timely century in India's second innings.
Gill, who survived two close reviews at the start of his innings, smashed 104 in India's second innings total of 255 -- his first century in nearly a year.
Facing calls for his ouster from the team, Gill served up a reminder of his wonderful batting talent with some cracking shots in Visakhapatnam.
Gill put on 81 runs for the third wicket with Shreyas Iyer (29) and added 89 for the fifth wicket with Axar Patel (45) which was instrumental in taking India past 250.
Ravichandran Ashwin
Ashwin went wicketless in the first innings -- a rare occurence in a home Test in India.
But the veteran spinner bounced back in fine style in the second innings with some crucial wickets on Day 4.
He bagged the crucial wicket of the attacking Ben Duckett, late on Day 3, caught off an inside edge by wicket-keeper K S Bharat. On the fourth day, he bagged another couple of important wickets.
Ollie Pope employed the sweep and reverse sweep to great effect, hitting 23 from 21 balls. But Ashwin produced a magical delivery, sharp turn and extra bounce to get the edge with Rohit taking a superb reflex catch to his left at slip.
Joe Root came out all guns blazing smashing his way to 16 with two fours and a six. He was done in by Ashwin's guile as he looked to smash the offie over midwicket but only managed a leading edge to be caught on the off-side.
Ashwin finished with 3/72 to take his career tally to 499 Test wickets.
Shreyas Iyer
Iyer was again guilty of throwing away starts in both innings. However, he made up for it with two pivotal contributions in the field.
He took a splendid catch to get rid of Crawley in the first innings off Axar Patel, running back from point and putting in the last minute dive to pouch the ball.
Stokes was at the receiving end of Iyer's brilliance.
Iyer came up with an amazing piece of fielding at midwicket to run out Stokes with a direct hit.
That wicket ended all but England's hopes of victory.
Photographs: BCCI
