England suffered a heavy defeat in Rajkot while India took a 2-1 lead in the five-match series and won the third Test by a record margin of 434 runs.
Chasing a world-record target of 557 after India declared 430 for four, the tourists lost both openers shortly before tea, ending a grim match at 18 for two. Ben Duckett ran out before Zak Crawley was thumped by Jasprit Bumrah but the on-field umpire decided to keep it because the ball Will bounce onto the stump of the leg.
India welcomed back spinner Ravichandran Ashwin but Ravindra Jadeja ended the evening. He cut through England’s middle order and took the wickets of Ollie Pope (three), Joe Root (seven) and Jonny Bairstow (four).
Ben Stokes and Ben Foakes put up a brief resistance but when the England captain thumped out near Kuldeep Yadav, any hopes of extending the match to the final day were dashed, already dashed. Yadav dismissed Rehan Ahmed and took a promising swing to the boundary before Jadeja replaced Foakes.
With the finish line in sight, Ashwin bowled 16 to Tom Hartley and Mark Wood hit 6 fours for 33, England’s maximum score, before Jadeja Jadeja batted again and Yashasvi Jaiswal’s catch aptly sealed the victory.
The Indian batsman’s 209 last time out in Visakhapatnam equaled Wasim Akram’s record of most sixes in a Test innings with his unbeaten 214 Twelve overs in the match cemented India’s record of 430 in four overs.
It was the first time under Stokes and head coach Brendan McCullum that a rival team had announced against England, with the hosts crumbling as the visitors collapsed with a day remaining An overwhelming victory ended in time.
Stokes and England’s bowlers were powerless to stop Jaiswal, who had dismissed Jimmy Anderson for three consecutive knocks and hit 172 off 158 balls with Sarfaraz Khan (68 not out) ball. Anderson leaked 78 runs in 13 wicketless deliveries while Joe Root and Rehan Ahmed conceded over 100 runs with an economy rate of over 4.
Jaiswal scored 104 before withdrawing injured on the third night but was back in action after England’s only breakthrough in the first hour, Shubman Gill’s 91. Nightwatchman Kuldeep Yadav made 27 before pushing Rehan Ahmed to Joe Root, the news was confirmed upstairs comment of.
This only brought together Jaiswal and Sarfaraz, two of India’s big names who have the credentials to throw caution to the wind, with the pair accelerating sharply either side of the lunch break to add 98 runs in the first hour of the afternoon.
Newsletter Promotion Post
When Sarfaraz was on 37, Root took a tough catch – the former captain’s second drop in Tests, although it wasn’t as significant as when he dropped Rohit on day one, later The player lost 104 points.
Sarfaraz’s almost unobtrusive fifty, his second in his first Test, had the crowd’s attention focused on Jaiswal. He pushed Root into the offside position, raised his arms, then took off his helmet, jumped and hit the air, and then shook hands with Stokes.
After the game, Stokes sounded defiant and his goal was to win the series 3-2. “Things don’t always go your way but we still have a great chance to win the trophy 3-2,” he told TNT Sports. “We put this game behind us, just like we did in the first two games, and we knew we had to win the next two games to win the series.”
