India has been invincible at home and major teams have been falling prey in their spin web. At Hyderabad, India again prepared a pitch helpful for spinners. England batters did find it hard to bat against quality spin bowling of Indian spinners. But in the second innings, Ollie Pope, single-handedly swept spinners and turned tables around for England to win the match.
On the first and second days, India looked in the driving seat and many expected the match to finish on the third day, England have won the toss and elected to bat first. They scored 246 on the day 1, with Ben Stokes forming the strike and booming the score with tail-enders. He scored 70 runs and rest looked clueless against good Indian bowling while they tried to keep up bazball cricket.
India started off well with Yashasvi Jaiswal(80) going hard in the final session of the day 1. KL Rahul continued after Jaiswal got out on Day 2 with Shreyas Iyer(35) giving him company. But he fell short of his century on 86. Ravindra Jadeja absorbed pressure and kept the score board ticking with Srikar Bharat(41) and Axar Patel(44) giving him company. India ended Day 2 on a super positive note, looking like wrapping up test on Day 3.
Jadeja fell immediately on Day 3 morning after scoring 87 runs. Rest of the tail, failed to add to the score and India ended their first innings on 436. Joe Root bowled the best among England bowlers and returned with 4/79 figures. Tom Hartley found it hard to land the ball on the good length and conceeded 131 runs from his 25 overs. With 190 runs deficit, it looked like writing on the wall for English.
Ben Duckett(47) and Zak Crawley(31) gave a positive start to English second innings. But English team lost quick wickets and Joe Root(2), Jonny Bairstow(10), Ben Stokes(6) fell quickly. It looked easy for Indian spinners to run through the English batting order. Ben Foakes(34), Rehan Ahmed(28) and Tom Hartley(34) helped Ollie Pope to sweep spinners effectively. He scored 196, missing out on a double century to relentless Jasprit Bumrah.
Jasprit Bumrah(4/41) stood out among Indian bowlers. Pope took a liking to Indian spin duo Ravichandran Ashwin(3/126) and Ravindra Jadeja(2/131). England scored 420 in the second innings and put forth a 231 runs target for India to chase and win the Test. Tom Hartley found his lengths and consistently got wickets for England to win the test by 28 runs.
He took 7/62 on a deteriorating track. Rohit Sharma(39) top scored while many Indian batters could not resist against consistent spin. They scored only 202 runs even though Srikar Bharat(28), Ravichandran Ashwin(28) looked like saving the day. Ollie Pope got Player of the Match for his great innings and after 2012 series, this could be one of the most tightly fought Test series for India against England, in India.