Has Bazball come unstuck? Well, a defeat by 434 runs – England’s second-biggest margin of loss in their Test history – may suggest that.
England’s Bazball met its utterly overpowering match in Rajkot as India registered their biggest-ever Test match win in terms of runs. On Sunday, Day 4 of the Test, India had their most dominating day of the series. First, Shubman Gill and Kuldeep Yadav’s partnership troubled England before Gill got run out on 91.
Then came the berserk from two Mumbai boys, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sarfaraz Khan, that utterly blew England away. Jaiswal and Sarfaraz recorded a jaw-dropping partnership of 172* (158) as both played stunning shots. Jaiswal, who became the third Indian to register two double hundreds in two consecutive Tests, walloped 12 sixes, equalling the world record set by Wasim Akram. Sarfaraz notched up a second fifty on his Test debut.
After setting England an unscalable target of 557 runs, India ran through their batting order. First, it was Ben Duckett, who hit a century in the first innings, who got run out before Bumrah trapped Crawley. Stokes, Bairstow, and Root got out lbw playing sweeps. Jadeja finished with a five-wicket haul.
Ravindra Jadeja, who had scored a century in the first innings, bagged the Man of the Match award for his all-round contribution at his home ground in Rajkot.
Memes on Bazball after England’s huge defeat in Rajkot:
Memes and jokes on Bazball flew everywhere on Twitter. While plenty of fans and pundits have criticised England’s collapse in the first innings – triggered by Joe Root’s dismissal while playing a reverse scoop to Jasprit Bumrah – captain Ben Stokes said it was the “perception” of the players in the dressing room that mattered the most.
Stokes said, “Sometimes gameplans don’t work and that was the case. Everyone’s got a perception and opinion about things, the people in the dressing room is what matters to us. 1-2 down in the series and a great opportunity for us to come back and win the series. We leave this game behind and we know we have to win the next 2 games to win the series and that’s what we’ll look to do.”
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