Visakhapatnam: Fast-bowling spearhead Bumrah ran through the batting order to pick a magical six-wicket haul as India bowled out England for 253 and took a massive lead of 143 runs on Day Two of the second Test at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium here on Saturday.
England had a good start when Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley added 59 runs for the opening stand. But once Crawley fell for 76, Bumrah steamed in with an exhibition of set-up and reverse-swing in front of a weekend crowd to pick 6-45 in 15.5 overs, also his best Test figures on Indian soil. He was also supported by Kuldeep Yadav’s 3-71 and Axar Patel’s 1-24.
In the final session, Bumrah began his magical work by luring Jonny Bairstow to play a drive and the edge carried to first slip. England’s collapse continued when Ben Foakes was bowled past the outside edge by Kuldeep and Rehan Ahmed pulled the wrist-spinner to mid-wicket.
Ben Stokes stepped in to shape England’s fightback by pulling Kuldeep and getting a thick edge fly past slip to get two boundaries. Stokes and Tom Hartley found boundaries at a click clip before Bumrah came back to halt the fightback.
Bumrah got one to shape back in and kept low to go under Stokes’ bat and hit off-stump, with the England captain left bewildered as the pacer got his 150th Test scalp. Bumrah got his fifth scalp when Hartley edged to first slip and ended England’s innings by trapping James Anderson plumb lbw to complete an incredible six-wicket haul on a placid pitch, handing India a huge advantage.
In the morning, Crawley and Duckett took England to 32/0 at lunch. Post that, Crawley got a life at 18 when Shubman Gill couldn’t hold on to a chance at short mid-wicket. Crawley proceeded to take four boundaries off Bumrah and even took a boundary off Ashwin by beating leg-gully on his right.
But India soon had a wicket when Kuldeep got extra bounce on a good length ball which Duckett tried to defend and the ball was safely caught by a silly point. Ollie Pope survived on his very first ball when KS Bharat couldn’t gather the ball cleanly, thus missing a stumping chance.
Crawley continued to go his way undeterred -– driving Kuldeep firmly through long-off for four, before slog-sweeping for six to get his fifty in just 52 balls. While Pope was being tested by the Indian spinners, especially by Ravichandran Ashwin on the outside edge, Crawley was nailing his slog-sweep, punch and drive against the off-spinner for boundaries as England reached 100 in the 20th over.
Crawley’s fun came to an end on 78 when he tried to take on a slightly wide ball against Patel and the ball took the leading edge to a back-tracking backward point. Joe Root was off the mark with a reverse sweep but was teased by away swingers from a probing Bumrah. The plan worked well as Root poked at the corridor of uncertainty and edged to first slip.
Pope was the next person to be taken out by Bumrah, looking clueless against a pacy inswinging yorker which slipped past his toes to leave middle and leg stumps in a complete mess. Bairstow and Stokes looked fluent till tea arrived, but after that, it was Bumrah wreaking havoc to give India a huge lead.
Brief scores:
India 396 in 112 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 209, Shubman Gill 34; James Anderson 3-47, Rehan Ahmed 3-65) lead England 253 all out in 55 overs (Zak Crawley 76, Ben Stokes 47; Jasprit Bumrah 6-45, Kuldeep Yadav 3-71) by 143 runs
–IANS
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