India beat England in the second Test match in Vizag© AFP
The Indian cricket team moved up to the second place in the World Test Championship (WTC) points table with a big win over England in the second Test match in Visakhapatnam on Monday. Thanks to the victory, India’s PCT went up to 52.77 and that allowed them to leapfrog South Africa, New Zealand and Bangladesh who have PCT of 50. India started the game at the fifth position but thanks to brilliant batting performances from Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill coupled with a bowling masterclass from Jasprit Bumrah, they bounced back to level the five-match series 1-1. Australia continue to lead the WTC standings with a PCT of 55.
Indian bowlers won an engrossing battle against England’s firebrand batting for a series-levelling 106-run victory in the second Test on Monday, blunting ‘Bazball’ with their resilience in a roller-coaster contest.
England began day four at 67 for one, chasing a record target of 399. They were bowled out for 292 in the extended afternoon session.
The visiting team’s no holds barred approach, which has largely been successful, did not work on this occasion as India picked up nine wickets over the course of two sessions to bounce back in the five-match series.
The third Test will be played in Rajkot from February 15.
Only Zak Crawley‘s (73 off 132 balls) strategy of mixing caution with aggression worked before the collective efforts of Jasprit Bumrah (3/46), R Ashwin (3/71), Axar Patel (1/75) and Kuldeep Yadav (1/60) yielded the desired results for the hosts who were under pressure going into day four.
(With PTI inputs)
Topics mentioned in this article
