Another home Test, another superb Ravindra Jadeja all-round show. And this time at his home ground in Rajkot.
Returning from a hamstring injury, the all-rounder scored a brilliant, gritty century in India’s first innings and then took a terrific five-for in England’s second innings to help India win by a huge margin of 434 runs and take a 2-1 lead in the series.
On day 1 of the Test, Ravindra Jadeja formed two crucial partnerships with captain Rohit Sharma and debutant Sarfaraz Khan that propelled India from 33/3 to over 400, the left-hander scoring 112 runs in 225 balls.
He stepped up with the ball on Day 3 after Ben Duckett had smashed a century and India had lost the services of R Ashwin. Jadeja took the big scalp of England captain Ben Stokes with a smart piece of bowling, before toppling Tom Hartley.
On Day 4, then, as England confounded in the face of a mammoth target of 557 runs, Ravindra Jadeja mopped them up with a five-wicket haul, which included the wickets of Ollie Pope, Jonny Bairstow, and Joe Root, the middle-order core of England.
Jadeja also kissed the pitch, his home turf, after securing his five-wicket haul.
Ravindra Jadeja bagged the Man of the Match over first innings centurion Rohit Sharma and second innings double-centurion Yashasvi Jaiswal. He received huge praise on social media from fans for his terrific all-round show.
Twitter reactions as Ravindra Jadeja downs England in Rajkot:
Jadeja said, “I was just looking to build partnerships with Rohit, we were in a difficult situation, look to back my strengths, play my shots, not try and be more conscious. Watch the ball and play the ball. I know about this wicket, if we bat first, it is always good to bat on, in the second half it starts spinning, when Rohit won the toss, we were thinking: this is all what we wanted, bat first, bowl second. On this wicket you won’t get easy wickets, you have to work hard for it. You need to throw balls in good areas, you have to earn your wickets.”
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