The second IND vs ENG Test match of the five-match series is currently underway at the Dr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. The match began on February 2 and is set to have an exciting ending.
The Indian national cricket team won the toss and elected to bat first in the match. The pitch at the Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium looked quite good for batting and did not help the players much.
Despite getting support from the surface, the Indian batsmen, except Yashasvi Jaiswal, failed to score big. In particular, all the hitters had starts but were unable to convert them into big scores.
Although the Indian batting unit failed to deliver as a whole, Yashasvi Jaiswal’s individual show allowed the team to post a massive total of 396 on the board in 112 overs. Jaiswal remained unbeaten on 179 on Day 1 and India on 336/6.
Jaiswal continued his batting masterclass on Day 2 and completed his first double century in Test cricket. He finished his innings with a score of 209 runs off 290 deliveries. The left-handed batsman hit 19 fours and 7 sixes during his remarkable innings.
When it was England’s turn to bat, the bazballers launched an attack on the Indian bowling unit. All the batsmen tried to play with an offensive mindset, but only opener Zak Crawley managed to make a big hit. The opening batsman made 76 runs off 78 balls, with 11 fours and 2 sixes.
Other batsmen played decently but were outfoxed by Jasprit Bumrah, who finished his stint with remarkable figures of 6/45. At one point, the England national cricket team looked set to cross 300 easily but were bowled out for 253 in 55.5 overs.
India batted again on the second day and were able to score 28 runs in 5 overs with Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma unbeaten in the middle.
IND vs ENG: Launch Report and Weather Report for Day 3
Speaking after the end of play on Day 2, Zak Crawley stated that the Visakhapatnam pitch was much better than the Hyderabad pitch. He added that England are still in the game even though India has a huge lead of 171 runs.
“They played very well. Jaiswal played an incredible innings and Bumrah was very, very good. He threw some unplayable balls to some of our guys. But the pitch is much better than Hyderabad, so I feel like we are still in the game to a large extent. We can get a great result on the fourth or fifth day.”
Zak Crawley’s statement hints that the surface still has enough help for batsmen and bowlers have to work hard to pick wickets. However, in India traditionally wicketkeepers tend to provide more help to the spinners as the game progresses and the same can be seen in Visakhapatnam. The batsmen need to fire in the early hours of Day 3 because once the spinners come into the game, scoring runs would become difficult.
Talking about the weather in Visakhapatnam, the temperature is expected to be 29° on Sunday and the humidity will be around 76% during the day. Cloud cover will be around 57% during the day and the probability of precipitation is 25%. The weather report suggests that the game is likely to be played without interruption and that an exciting full day of Test cricket will be on the cards.