By BD Naraayannkar
Visakhapatnam, Feb 3 (UNI) Jasprit Bumrah’s crackerjack six-fer helped India bowl out England for 253 in their first innings, giving India a complete hold over the second Test here on Saturday.
Bumrah picked all the 6 wickets for 45 with the old ball doing the reverse swing when England were cruising along in a jiffy.
England openers started in Bazball style with Zak Crawley hammering 76 off 78 balls, with 11 boundaries and 2 sixes.
Kuldeep Yadav tasted the first blood by breaking the 59-run partnership for the first wicket by getting Ben Duckett caught at silly point by Rajat Patidar off a bump ball.
But Crawley brought into play the long handle and made quick runs. He slog-swept a six and then drove Ravichandran Ashwin to notch up a fifty with agility.
Just as he looked ominous, Rohit Sharma brought in Axar Patel and delivered immediately, dismissing a hostile Crawley. The opener miscued a big hit, resulting in the ball ballooning to Shreyas Iyer who took an excellent catch, running behind.
Bumrah was re-employed in the hope of reverse swing. Soon he forced Joe Root to nick one to Shubman Gill in the first slip.
He then cleaned up Ollie Pope with a peach of a yorker as England lost three wickets for 22 runs before Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes shipped the England innings safely to Tea break.
After the break, Bumrah broke another fledgling partnership to dismiss Bairstow caught in the slip by Gill.
Kuldeep also came off good from the other end and chipped in with two wickets of Ben Foakes and Rehan Ahmed. The English wicketkeeper was cleaned up and Rehan was caught at midwicket by Gill.
Reduced to 182/7, England were on the verge of folding their innings quickly, but Stokes and Tom Hartley stitched a useful 47 for the 8th wicket in quick time, forcing Rohit to lob the ball to Bumrah again.
The pacer did not disappoint and rattled Stokes’ stumps, leaving the England captain hysterical before Hartley edged to Gill to take his fourth catch of the innings.
Bumrah sealed the England innings by trapping James Anderson in front with figures of 6/45, becoming the fastest Indian bowler to take 150 Test wickets.
Rohit and Yashavi Jaiswal played cautiously for the remaining half-an-hour without losing their wickets.
Earlier Jaiswal scored his Talismanic maiden Test double hundred, but England managed to bowl India out inside 400 in their first innings.
The hosts were bowled out for 396 after England’s James Anderson produced a superb spell with the second new ball.
Overnight batsman Ashwin cracked a couple of wonderful boundaries but nicked Anderson behind the stumps to Ben Foakes.
Jaiswal started to take risky chances against the spinners, but England managed to keep the run rate under check.
Anderson’s seam movement played on the mind of Jaiswal, which kept the double centurion silent.
As the runs came by in trickle, the Mumbaikar tried to take Anderson to the cleaners but was holed out in the deep to Jonny Bairstow after an epic 209.
India’s tail did not wag long with Rehan Ahmed and Shoaib Bashir dismissing them abruptly below 400.
In reply, England’s openers started in Bazball chic with Duckett battering a straying Mukesh Kumar. The pacer was smacked for five boundaries in a two-over spell as the openers went unbeaten into lunch.
Brief Scores: India 396 (Yashasvi Jaiswal 209; James Anderson 3-47, Rehan Ahmed 3-65) & 28/0 lead England 253 (Zak Crawley 76, Ben Stokes 47; Jasprir Bumrah 6-45, Kuldeep Yadav 3-71) by 171 runs.
