Jazz up Bazball, Jaiswal and Jadeja

At some time on Sunday afternoon, if you were traveling down the Rajkot highway towards Jamnagar, you would have heard the chanting “Bumrah…Bumrah…Bumrah,” or at least the echoes of them. The number of people in attendance at the Niranjan Shah Stadium (23,679) was much more than it was on the first three days. First of all, it was a holiday, and the game was set up such that India might potentially lead 2-1. And that’s precisely what took place. Yashasvi Jaiswal struck for a double century and set a target of 557, while young Ravindra Jadeja from the area got five wickets to give India a 434-run victory, the largest margin of victory for an Indian Test team.

At the beginning of day three, however, not many would have believed you if you had told them this is how the match would play out. Ben Duckett seemed to be taking the game by storm, England was cruising at 207/2, and India had lost their leading spinner in R Ashwin, who would return and take a wicket on Sunday. India then forced a collapse to take a 126-run advantage, and Jaiswal struck a century to put the home team ahead. England didn’t seem rattled on Friday night, despite trailing by 322 runs. Duckett felt certain that England will pursue any objective that was presented to them.

The problem is that it’s hard to take that statement too literally. With two days remaining in the game, no team would want to declare that they are out of the running or confess that they are not going to win. Especially with this England that seems to be living in a bubble of affirmation. Consequently, any English cricket player at that time would have expressed themselves in a similar manner as Duckett. They were unprepared for the brutality of two teenage Indian hitters who tore them apart. Sarfaraz Khan and Jaiswal stepped on the gas and made sure England had nowhere to breathe. The strain of having to bat through four sessions on a surface that was helping spinners was another factor for the visitors, in addition to the enormous target on one side. And that was clear from Duckett and Zak Crawley’s first scenes. Early on, there was some hesitancy, and Mohammed Siraj and Dhruv Jurel’s outstanding effort ran out the left-hander. After that, Bumrah sent Crawley back, but he and Siraj had little choice once the spinners started.

As Kuldeep Yadav and Jadeja bowled from each end, Rohit Sharma stayed close to the ball and attacked fields without any target pressure. As if bowling on an Indian day-four pitch wasn’t enough, Jadeja was raised here. To put it mildly, his record here is Bradmanesque. He continued to run in and pitch the ball consistently in the proper places, this time a little bit fuller to ensure that there was no space for sweeps. This is what he does best. However, it is just what the batters from England accomplished. Adamant on sweeping, Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow were ultimately caught on pads, Ben Stokes was caught on the back foot by Kuldeep, and Ollie Pope gave Rohit an advantage at slips.

Tom Hartley was causing the hosts a lot of trouble, so Ashwin just needed to clean him up. Jadeja took care of the rest, getting rid of Ben Foakes and Mark Wood. A player of the match award, another fourth-inning fifer, and a lengthy record of them at this venue in first-class cricket. India was victorious by the largest run margin in history, holding a commanding 2-1 lead.

Rahul is expected in Ranchi.

Due to a quadriceps injury, KL Rahul was unable to travel to Rajkot in time and missed the Vizag Test. On the other hand, skipper Rohit Sharma said during the third Test that the veteran hitter “should be okay” for the fourth Test against England, which is set to begin on February 23 in Ranchi.

A scoreboard

India: 445 after one inning

First Innings for England: 319

Second Innings for India: (O/196/2) Sarfaraz not out 68, Jaiswal not out 214, Sharma lbw b Root 19, Patidar c Ahmed b Hartley 0, Kuldeep c Root b Ahmed 27, and extras (lb 9, w 2) 11; total: (4 wickets in 98 overs): 430 decl; FoW: 1-30, 1-185, 2-191, 3-246, 4-258; bowling: Anderson 13-1-78-0, Root 27-3-111-1, Hartley 23-2-78-1, Wood 10-0-46-0, Ahmed 25-1-108-1.

In the second innings, England’s score was Crawley lbw Bumrah 11, Duckett run out 4, Pope c Sharma b Jadeja 3, Root lbw Jadeja 7, Bairstow lbw Jadeja 4, Stokes lbw Kuldeep 15, Foakes c Jurel b Jadeja 16, Ahmed c Siraj b Kuldeep 0, Hartley b Ashwin 16, Wood c Jaiswal b Jadeja 33, Anderson not out 1; Additionals: (b 5, lb 4, nb 3) 12, Total: (all out in 39.4 overs) 122; FoW: 1-15, 2-18, 3-20, 4-28, 5-50, 6-50, 7-50, 8-82, 9-91; Bowling: Bumrah 8-1-18-1, Siraj 5-2-16-0, Jadeja 12.4-4-41-5, Kuldeep 8-2-19-2, Ashwin 6-3-19-1