It was all too easy, in the end. All and sundry had expected the English team to forge a valiant Bazball-fuelled fightback on Day 4. But India showed exactly why they are inarguably the most dangerous Test side at home currently, with a 434-run walloping of Ben Stokes' men in Rajkot on Sunday, February 18, 2024. The win was India's biggest-ever in terms of runs in Test history. (As It Happened | More Cricket News)
There were multiple protagonists in this resounding win -- Mohammed Siraj scalped four wickets in the first innings to stem the English batting riposte, and help attain a decisive 126-run lead. Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja scored centuries to lift the home team from a spot of bother at 33/3 in the first essay. Sarfaraz Khan scored half-centuries in both innings of his debut outing, and Jadeja combined with Kuldeep Yadav to spin out the visitors' top and middle-order.
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But nobody shone brighter than young Yashasvi Jaiswal, who smashed a scintillating double century - his second in as many Tests - to demolish the English bowling and set things up beautifully for the spinners to make hay later. The 22-year-old Jaiswal (214 not out off 236 balls) tore apart the visitors' bowling attack, smoking a world record-equalling 12 sixes in his swashbuckling knock.
The highlight of his foray was three successive sixes off the veteran James Anderson, which left fans bewildered and thrilled in equal measure. The lad from Suriya, Uttar Pradesh had scored a superb double hundred in the previous Test in Visakhapatnam too, and has already clobbered 22 sixes in the series, which is again a world record.
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His knock, complemented ably by Shubman Gill who fell nine runs short of a century, helped India take their lead to an insurmountable 556, which is when Rohit Sharma decided to declare. With a day and a half to spare, everyone expected England to come out swinging with the bat in pursuit of the gigantic target. But few would have expected a collapse of the kind we witnessed on Sunday afternoon.
The first wicket was down to debutant wicket-keeper Dhruv Jurel's brilliance. He sprinted in from 25 yards back and collected a somewhat wayward throw from Mohammed Siraj to catch Ben Duckett, who had scored a century in the visiting team's first essay, well short of his ground.
The floodgates were thrown open, and Ravindra Jadeja needed no second invitation at his home ground. The wily left-arm spinner gave the ball a good rip and bowled faster to extract more zip from the Rajkot pitch, and reaped rich rewards for it. Jadeja ended up with a fabulous fifer (5/41 in 12.4 overs), and led the way as England were bundled out for 122 in just 39.4 overs.
Though Jaiswal dazzled the most, it was Jadeja who was the overall MVP, and was accordingly awarded the Player of the Match award. In addition to his seven-wicket match haul, the 35-year-old from Saurashtra scored a typically responsible century (112 off 225 balls) and combined forces with skipper Rohit (131 off 196 balls) to lift India out of a precarious situation.
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A 204-run partnership ensued as 33/3 became 237/4, and India were well on their way to a big total. Sarfaraz teed off, and there were handy contributions from Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah lower down the order as India ended up with 445 runs in the first innings.
In reply, England started strongly and were sitting pretty at 224/2 at one stage, before pace spearhead provided the breakthrough yet again. Joe Root perished while attempting a reverse ramp shot, and the door was left ajar for Siraj to make his mark. The Hyderabad seamer broke the back of English batting and helped restrict them to 319, which proved woefully inadequate eventually.
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The match was marred by Ashwin having to leave overnight after Day 2 due to a family medical emergency. But he was back on Day 4, and as it turned out, wasn't missed all that much as the other 10 men did the job with precision.
