India triumphed over England’s firebrand batting in an engrossing battle for a series-levelling 106-run victory in the second Test at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Monday, blunting ‘Bazball’ with their resilience in a roller-coaster contest.
The visiting team’s no-holds-barred approach, which has largely been successful, did not work on this occasion as India picked up nine wickets over the course of two sessions to bounce back in the five-match series.
IND vs ENG 2nd Test Day 4 – Highlights
At the post-match press conference, Rahul Dravid laid down his impressions of ‘Bazball’ or ‘whatever you call it’, as the coach of the Indian men’s cricket team put it.
“Both these games, they have played some fantastic cricket. They won the first test at the back of a fantastic innings and even in this Test, they played really good cricket. I have always known that is going to be a tough series. They have a lot of experienced players. It is one of the things we forget looking at their squad, three of them closing on 100 games and 184 (for James). Their spinners are young. It has been tough. We would like to be 2-0, but considering the cricket being played on both sides 1-1 is a fair position to be in after two games,” Rahul Dravid said at the post-match press conference.
When asked about how India countered ‘Bazball’, Dravid said: “Just a little bit better than the last game? Look, I think they’re playing very well. Whether you call it Bazball or whatever you call it.”
“It’s not. I mean, I know it’s just a term. I’m not sure how happy they are about it, but they are playing really good cricket. I mean, let’s be honest, I think they played well. They have obviously shown that they’ve shown good skills. I think it’s not like wild slogging. They are actually showing some very good skills. Some of the shots they are playing require a lot of skill and ability. You can’t just come there and execute those things and just say, well, I want to play attacking and not have the skills to execute it,” Dravid said.
“So I think there’s more to it than just attacking cricket. And you’ve seen, I’ve seen at times they know when to pull back, they know when to attack. So they’re playing slightly differently, no doubt about it, but they’ve been very successful and they’re playing it well. So they know how to do that well. They know how to find that balance and we know we’re up against the challenge and we’re looking forward to it,” he added.
The third Test will be played in Rajkot from February 15.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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