Twitter Reactions: India thump England by 317 runs and level the four-match series courtesy Axar Patel's five wicket-haul

England were bundled out for just 164 runs in the second innings.

By Aditya Gajanan Kukalyekar verified

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3 Min Read

Axar Patel
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Axar Patel. (Photo Source: BCCI)

As expected, India have defeated England by a whopping margin of 317 runs and have made a stunning comeback in the four-match Test series. They also stay well and truly alive in the race to make it to the final of the World Test Championship and will have to win at least one more game in the next two matches while making sure they don’t lose the other one.

Coming into the fourth day of the second Test, England were already reeling at 53/3 and the excitement was only about by when the hosts will seal the victory. And it took only 35.1 overs for India to skittle the opposition as the visitors didn’t show any kind of fight. Dan Lawrence never looked comfortable against the spinning ball and used his feet a lot more on the fourth morning.

But he was premeditating a lot and Ravi Ashwin trapped him down the leg-side getting him stumped. Joe Root and Ben Stokes then denied the hosts a wicket for the most part of the next 13 overs. However, Ashwin once again managed to bluff Stokes, for the 10th time in Tests, and this proved to be the final nail in the coffin as far as England putting up a fight was concerned.

Axar Patel spins the web

After Ashwin, it was time for Axar Patel to take matters into his own hands. Ollie Pope looked jittery during his stay in the middle and when he finally tried to play a sweep shot off the left-arm spinner, he could only top-edge it to the deep mid-wicket fielder. The chinaman Kuldeep Yadav was also amongst the wickets as he dismissed Ben Foakes at the stroke of lunch after finally coming into the attack in the 43rd over of the innings.

Soon after the second session began, Axar managed to pounce the prized wicket of Root who gloved one to Ajinkya Rahane. A ball spit out of the rough and bounced even as the England captain prodded forward. Root though was the only England batsman who looked a bit comfortable as he once again played sweeps and reverse sweeps to perfection scoring 33 runs.

Axar Patel pinned Olly Stone in front of the stumps to become only the sixth Indian spinner to pick a five-wicket haul on debut in Tests. Once the ninth wicket fell, Moeen Ali decided to take the attack to the spinner and he entertained the crowd for some time. He smacked five huge sixes taking on especially Axar hitting him for three consecutive maximums.

He scored 43 in no time but it was only going to be a matter of time and eventually, Kuldeep Yadav bluffed Moeen in flight to get him stumped as England were bundled out for 164 runs in the second innings and India levelled the series in style.

Here’s how Twitter reacted:

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