Rajkot: Local lad Ravindra Jadeja shone at his home ground with a five-wicket haul to help India hammer England by 434 runs in the third Test at the Niranjan Shah Stadium here on Sunday.
It was another day of domination for India, where Yashasvi Jaiswal scored a phenomenal unbeaten double-century, the second of his Test career, while Shubman Gill (91) and Sarfaraz Khan (68 not out) made fifties as the hosts declared their second innings on 430/4, giving England a massive target of 557.
In reply, England crumbled under the pressure of runs and were all out for 122, with Jadeja taking 5-41 as India registered their biggest win by runs in Tests to go 2-1 up in the five-match series. From 33/3 on Day One, India have now gone on to win at Rajkot with a day to spare. It is also England’s second-biggest defeat in Tests, with their implosion coming under the bright sunshine of Rajkot.
Chasing 557, England were off to a watchful start, in complete opposite of their aggressive nature. Zak Crawley took two boundaries but was involved in a horrible mix-up as Ben Duckett went in pursuit of a single after pushing the ball to mid-wicket.
Crawley sent Duckett back, but it was too late as Mohammed Siraj fired in a throw and wicket-keeper Dhurv Jurel rushed towards the stumps and collected the ball in motion to break the stumps quickly. At the stroke of tea, Crawley was trapped LBW by Jasprit Bumrah by a sharp nip-backer, which England couldn’t overturn on review.
Post-tea, England continued to fall like nine pins. Ollie Pope tried a cut shot off Jadeja but was caught at first slip. Jonny Bairstow tried to sweep off Jadeja but was trapped plumb LBW. Joe Root battled for 40 balls before missing Jadeja on the sweep and was trapped LBW. Capitan Ben Stokes was beaten on the sweep against Kuldeep Yadav and became the third batter in the innings to be trapped LBW. Rehan Ahmed went for a big shot down the ground off Kuldeep but found long-on.
Ben Foakes and Tom Hartley put some resistance with a 32-run standoff 67 balls for the eighth wicket, but the former gave a thick edge on a cut to an impressive Jurel behind the stumps. Ravichandran Ashwin came back to take Tom Hartley’s inside edge to the stumps and Jadeja ended the match by ending Mark Wood’s cameo of 33 off 15 balls when the batter holed out to long-off to complete a dominating win for India.
Brief scores:
India 445 & 430/4 dec in 98 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 214 not out, Shubman Gill 91; Sarfaraz Khan 68 not out; Tom Hartley 1-78, Rehan Ahmed 1-108) beat England 319 & 122 all out in 39.4 overs (Mark Wood 33; Ravindra Jadeja 5-41, Kuldeep Yadav 2-19) by 434 runs
(IANS)
