Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was the focal point on day two of the second Test match between India and England in Chennai. The pitch was assisting spinners from day one, as Moeen Ali picked four wickets in India’s first innings of 329, and much was expected from Ashwin when England batted.
India could only add 29 runs to their overnight score of 300/6, but Rishabh Pant completed his fifty and remained unbeaten on 58* with 7 fours and 3 sixes. Moeen Ali was the best England bowler with figures of 4/128.
However, when England batted the pitch seemed to get more vicious, but it was Ishant Sharma who sent back Rory Burns for a duck in the first over itself. Then R Ashwin got into the action by removing Dom Sibley (16) and Dan Lawrence (9).
In between Akshar Patel picked his maiden Test wicket by removing the dangerous Joe Root, who got out playing his favorite sweep shot. He also picked the wicket of Moeen Ali for 6, who was caught excellently by Ajinkya Rahane.
IND v ENG 2021: WATCH- Rishabh Pant takes a blinder diving down the leg side to send Ollie Pope back
Ishant Sharma picked one more wicket, that of Jack Leach, who was brilliantly taken by Rishabh Pant. Pant was on fire with the gloves, as he had earlier taken an excellent catch off Mohammed Siraj to send back a well settled Ollie Pope (22).
Meanwhile, Ashwin continued his demolition job, cleaning up Ben Stokes (18) with a ball that pitched on the leg stump, turned sharply to beat Stokes’ bat, and hit the off stump. The Tamil Nadu off-spinner finished with figures of 5/43 as England was bowled out for 134 with Ben Foakes remaining unbeaten on 42 runs.
Ashwin removed Stuart Broad to end England innings and became the first bowler in Test history to take 200 wickets of left-handed batsmen.
The Indian team in the second innings, ended day two on 54/1 with Rohit Sharma unbeaten on 25, while Shubman Gill fell for 14 to Jack Leach. India has a total lead of 249 runs with 9 wickets in hand.
The cricket fraternity knew how good Ashwin was and lauded him for his amazing bowling performance in the first innings in Chepauk.
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