Chennai: Exploiting the spin-friendly conditions, a dominant India thumped England by 317 runs in the second Test to level the four-match series 1-1, here on Tuesday.

India bundled out England for 164 in their second innings with more than four sessions to spare in the match.

The victory was crucial for India in the context of World Test Championship as they need to win the series at least with a 2-1 margin or better to make the cut for the title clash against New Zealand.

India had lost the opening Test at the same venue by a massive 227-run margin.

The Test series will now move to Ahmedabad where the third Test, which will be a day/night affair with pink ball, begins on February 24.

In pursuit of an improbable 482-run target on a difficult pitch, England began at the overnight score of 53 for three but their batsmen struggled to counter the spin challenge posed by the home bowlers.

Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (3/53) first sent back Dan Lawrence (26) and then removed Stokes (8) to add to the misery of the visitors.

Axar Patel (5/60) enticed a lofted sweep from Ollie Pope (12), who was caught by Ishant Sharma. Left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav got his first wicket when he had Ben Foakes (2) caught by Patel.

Skipper Joe Root (33) kept one end tight in the morning session but struggled to handle ball from Patel that bounced a bit too much and was caught in the slip region.

Once Root was back in the pavilion, it was not difficult for India to wrap up the proceedings though Moeen Ali hit an attacking 43.

Brief Scores:

India: 329 and 286 all out in 86.5 overs.

England: 134 and 164 in 54.2 overs (Moeen Ali 43, Joe Root 33, D Lawrence 26; Axar Patel 5/60, R Ashwin 3/53).

 

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Baghpat (PTI): An interstate cyber-fraud racket involved in duping people on the pretext of providing bank jobs was busted by police in this Uttar Pradesh district on Sunday with the arrest of seven people, including two women, officials said.

Police said the accused were running a fake call centre and luring job seekers from several states by issuing forged appointment letters and fabricated agreements in the name of bank recruitment, collecting large sums of money in return.

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Twelve mobile phones, two laptops, two SIM cards on fake names, several forged appointment letters and agreements, 15 bank passbooks, two chequebooks, UPI QR codes, ATM cards and 11 other cards were seized from the possession of the accused, police said, adding that the data of around 6,450 people from different states was found stored in the laptops.

According to the officials, the gang misused information obtained from online platforms, such as OLX and job-related websites, to target unsuspecting victims.

The racket was uncovered following complaints received on the Union home ministry's "Pratibimb" portal and subsequent technical surveillance.

Investigations revealed at least 20 complaints from various states, including Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Assam and Meghalaya.

The arrested accused were identified as Mohit Kumar, Puneet Kumar, Vardaan, Anuj Kumar and Akshay, besides the two women.

They were arrested at around 11:30 am from under the Eastern Peripheral Expressway in the Kotwali Baghpat area.

A case has been registered at the cyber crime police station under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and section 66D of the Information Technology Act, police said.