India v England, 2nd Test - Joe Root’s men suffer crushing defeat

The damage had already been done over the course of three chastening days, with England resuming on 53-3 chasing two equally unrealistic options if they were to get out of jail and preserve their 1-0 series lead.

To win they would need to turn their overnight score into a world-record chase of 482 or to draw they would need to bat for six full sessions on a spinning, spitting minefield.

In the end, and to no great surprise, they came nowhere close to either outcome and were bowled out for 164.

Debutant Axar Patel finished with five wickets and there was another couple for player-of-the-match Ravichandran Ashwin, who ended the Test with eight to go with his brilliant second-innings century from number eight.

The margin was England’s heaviest defeat by runs in India, a beating that will need to be parked if the tourists are to hit back in the day-night third Test in Ahmedabad.

There was precious little optimism to take from this final day, but captain Joe Root clung on for over a session for 33 and Moeen Ali added some late spark by hammering five sixes in a bruising cameo before his dismissal ended the match.

Second Test, Chennai: India 329 (R G Sharma 161, A M Rahane 67, R R Pant 58 no, M M Ali 4-128) & 286 (R Ashwin 106, V Kohli 62, M M Ali 4-98, M J Leach 4-100), England 134 (R Ashwin 5-43) & 164 (A R Patel 5-60). India beat England by 317 runs