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Virat Kohli's impressive run as the captain of India's Test team continued as the home team hammered England by 246 runs in the second of the five-game series at Vishakhapatnam to take a 1-0 lead. 

The first game of the series at Rajkot was drawn.

Chasing an improbable target of 405, the visitors began from their overnight score of 87 for the loss of two wickets but couldn't survive even 39 overs, losing the last eight wickets for just 71 runs to be dismissed for 158. India's spinners had a golden harvest in the second innings as well as they knocked off eight English wickets. Ace off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who grabbed a five-for in the first innings, got three in the second innings. Debutant off-break bowler Jayant Yadav was the most successful Indian bowler in the second innings, taking three for 30 runs. For the visitors, captain Alistair Cook's 54 remained the only innings of significance besides an unbeaten 34 by wicketkeeper Jonathan Bairstow and a couple of 20s. But they were never going to be enough to successfully chase a mammoth target.

That the Indian spinners got 15 of the 20 wickets in the match proved how much the visitors struggled against them. The English, who have been playing Test cricket for almost 140 years now, even fell apart against the low-ranked Bangladesh with who they tied a two-Test series 1-1 before arriving in India. It was hence always doubtful whether the English batsmen could rise to the sub-continental challenge of playing spin with success.

English Test batsman Nick Compton, grandson of the late English cricket great Denis Compton was forthright when he told ESPN that young middle-order English batsman Ben Duckett doesn't have the technique to negotiate spin.

This win also gave India a welcome relief against England in Tests after a long time. India has lost to England in the last three consecutive series and twice despite taking an early lead. Kohli will be careful about not letting that happen again but given the English players' spin-playing capacity, it is unlikely that they can register a repeat of what happened in 2012-13 and 2014 seasons.

Talking about Kohli's captaincy, this win is his eleventh in 19 Tests as the captain which means he has a success percentage of 57.89, best among all of India's Test captains since 1932 when India made their debut. In terms of winning, Kohli is now fourth after MS Dhoni (27), Sourav Ganguly (21) and Mohammad Azharuddin (14).

The young captain praised his bowlers for the victory after the match got over. "It was lovely to have five bowlers who can pick up wickets. The biggest positives of this Test are how the fast bowlers bowled and Jayant's debut. He (Jayant) got one wicket in England first innings, scored some runs and then took another three wickets in second innings," Kohli said, as per PTI. The Indian skipper was picked as the player of the match for scoring 167 and 81 in the match.