India defeated England by 434 runs in the Rajkot Test taking a 2-1 lead in the series courtesy of another double century from Jaiswal while Jadeja took a 5-wicket haul to close the contest.
The overnight pair of Nightwatchman Kuldeep Yadav and Shubman Gill resumed the day’s play with a lead of 322 runs already in hand. While Gill started tentatively, Kuldep stepped out and hoicked Tom Hartley for a maximum in the third over of the morning.
While James Anderson was bowling economically, Hartley was leaking runs from the other end which allowed Gill to enter the nervous nineties and also bring up the half-century partnership between the two overnight batters.
At a score of 91 runs, Gill definitely displayed nerves as he unnecessarily ran for a single without looking at his partner and English skipper Ben Stokes did well with the throw as the top-order batter was run out for only the second time in his first-class career. After a lull of a few overs, Kuldeep also lost his wicket as Rehan Ahmed got his first wicket of the innings with Joe Root completing a fine catch at first slip.
Yashaswi Jaiswal and Sarfaraz Khan soon resumed normalcy as the young duo started accumulating runs at a brisk pace. In the 79th over, Jaiswal smacked Root over long-on for a maximum and two balls later, Khan got down on his knees and smashed the ball over the wide long-on region for another maximum.
In the 82nd over, Jaiswal smacked Ahmed over the press box region and the umpires had to change the ball as the older cherry wasn’t found after getting lost in that region. The maximum also brought up the 50-run partnership between the promising duo as India took Lunch at a score of 314/4.
With the first run of the second session, Jaiswal achieved the 150-run landmark before going berserk as he smacked three consecutive maximums off Anderson’s bowling.
In Anderson’s next over, Sarfaraz produced an eye-catching flick which resulted in a boundary and also brought up the century partnership between the pair in only 88 balls. Off the first two balls of the 93rd over, Sarfaraz smacked Root for consecutive boundaries upping the run rate once again after five boundary-less overs.
Yashasvi Jaiswal became the third Indian batter to score double centuries in consecutive Tests
In the 96th over, the debutant brought up the second half-century of his Test career and Jaiswal brought up his double century in the next over off 231 balls and immediately smacked two consecutive maximums over the long-off region and over the long-on region, equalizing the record for most maximums in a Test innings, jointly held by Wasim Akram for 12 sixes.
In the next over, India accumulated 18 more runs as Sarfaraz smashed two maximums and a boundary, eventually being on the score of 68 runs off 72 balls when skipper Rohit Sharma called for declaration and Jaiswal ended his innings unbeaten with 214 runs off 236 balls with 14 boundaries and 12 maximums with India ending their innings at 430/4 setting a target of 557 runs for the visitors to chase.
Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj started with a maiden over each on a batting-friendly surface before Zak Crawley broke the shackles with a glance that raced to the fence in Bumrah’s second over.
On the other hand, Ben Duckett failed to get his innings going and was run out courtesy of good fielding by Siraj and excellent wicket-keeping skills displayed by debutant Dhruv Jurel.
In the 9th over, Bumrah trapped Crawley LBW and the opening batter was back in the pavilion after contributing only 11 runs off 26 balls and Tea was taken with England in a precarious position.
Ravindra Jadeja started the third session with the dismissal of Ollie Pope as Rohit completed a brilliant catch in the slip cordon limiting the English vice-captain to a score of 3 runs. In his next over, Jadeja sent Jonny Bairstow packing who was once again caught in front of the wicket and didn’t even consider questioning the LBW decision this time around leaving the visitors at 28/4 with Root and Stokes left with a mountain to climb.
The two senior-most batters of the visiting camp compiled 22 runs for the fifth wicket in a space of 64 balls before Root became a victim of the local hero Jadeja who struck his third wicket of the day dismissing the former English skipper Leg Before Wicket.
Soon after, Stokes was completely beaten by Kuldeep and the English captain had to walk back to the pavilion leaving his side on a humiliating score of 50/6. Rehan also returned to the pavilion without troubling the scorers as Kuldeep got another wicket to his name while Siraj completed another decent catch safely in the deep.
In the 29th over, Ben Foakes smashed two consecutive boundaries off Kuldeep’s bowling before surviving a DRS call for LBW on the third delivery of the over. Ravichandran Ashwin started with a maiden over on Day 4 but Hartley hoicked him for a big maximum over the wide long-on region before smacking a boundary through the offside.
Jadeja soon dismissed Foakes on a score of 16 runs off 39 balls with Jurel pouching a tough reflex catch continuing a great debut match for him. As was the case with previous wickets, this one also came in a cluster as Ashwin made Foakes his 501st wicket as the ball came off the under-edge of the bat and dislodged the bails.