England fell short in their bid to pull off a second miracle in successive weeks when they were bowled out for 292 this morning, losing the second Test by 106 runs.
England entered the fourth day here needing another 332 to reach their target of 399 and create history after an extraordinary victory in the first Test.
But while there were moments when they could dream of achieving the almost impossible, ultimately they were unable to repeat their first Test magic, leaving the series level at 1-1 with three to play.
While Zak Crawley, who has continued his rich run of form here from the Ashes, was winning to surpass anything we had seen in the Bazball era, it still looked possible, but he would fall to a curious dismissal that raised questions about the accuracy of the DRS.
The main blows came just before lunch and were not without controversy. Sure, the lbw Kuldeep Yadav won in a review against the key man in Crawley when he was on 73, defying all cricketing logic.
India bounced back from a first Test defeat to set the series straight with a 106-run win over England
Zak Crawley hit a 132-ball 73 at the top of the order in the second innings for the tourists
In real time, it looked like the ball would have been pitched outside the leg stump and even if it hadn’t, it would have definitely spun around and missed the stumps. Instead, DRS let the ball go straight like a dye and hit Crawley’s leg stump.
Then Jonny Bairstow was given out by New Zealand umpire Chris Gaffaney, who has had a poor game here, when what is now old-fashioned logic suggested there had to be an element of doubt in the batsman’s favour. Technology had it as ‘referee’ and Bairstow had to leave at the stroke of lunch, with England six behind and 205 still needed.
Earlier the ‘Night Hawk’ in Rehan Ahmed had added another 28 with Crawley before being trapped plumb in front by Axar Patel before Ollie Pope was caught well to his left by Rohit Sharma at slip and then Joe Root came in for a frantic and disappointing cameo .
Root had injured his little finger in training prior to the third day and aggravated it in the field, keeping him out of the field for most of the day.
Now he swept his first ball in reverse from Ravichandran Ashwin for four and repeated the trick, slightly more dangerously, from his third. Root was very close to lbw on 15, making just eight balls, before aiming another big slog sweep at Ashwin and fouling to short third man. Perhaps Root was hampered by injury, but it was an innings that strayed too far onto the wrong side of the line that England tread carefully here.
Crawley, as in England’s first innings, looked sublime and while he was at Bairstow it really looked like England could achieve the impossible. His questionable lbw decision on 73 changed all that and when Bairstow, who had looked at his best so far this series, went for 26 to a decision that could easily have gone the other way, the writing was on the wall for England.
Although there was Stokes, there was hope, but having played responsibly, as he does when he is building towards a big contribution, the England captain was caught napping by a direct goal from Shreyas Iyer as he strolled on to what looked like a comfortable single.
It was careless of Stokes and the decisive blow for England in their bid to follow up the heist in Hyderabad, perhaps their biggest ever overseas Test win, with the eventual victory in Vizag.
New Zealand umpire Chris Gaffaney (left) had a poor match in the second Test in Visakhapatnam
England’s first innings tormentor Jasprit Bumrah took three more to finish with nine wickets in the match
Ravi Ashwin is set for 499 Test wickets after removing Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope and Joe Root
The folly of Stoke’s dismissal was highlighted by the ease with which Ben Foakes and Tom Hartley added 55 for the eighth wicket, both hitting sixes to continue the fight.
But their fun came to an end when Foakes offered a return catch to the English destroyer from the first innings at Jasprit Bumrah.
Shoaib Bashir was promoted in the batting order above Jimmy Anderson but he soon gave Mukesh Kumar, a disappointing replacement for Mohammed Siraj, a wicket with a lead behind and it was all over when Bumrah, fittingly, bowled Hartley with another beauty.
Now the teams have a break until the third Test in Rajkot on February 15 – England return to their training base in Abu Dhabi – with England still proving they will be competitive with their ultra-positivity in India and with this series beautifully balanced.