India crushed England on day four of the third Test in Rajkot, racing to a record-breaking 434-run victory behind Yashasvi Jaiswal’s double ton and Ravindra Jadeja’s five-wicket haul.
If Saturday was seen as one of the worst days of the ‘Bazball’ era, with England collapsing from 224-2 to 319 all out before seeing India race into a 322-run lead, that was nothing compared to Sunday.
Having hit a double century in the second Test in Visakhapatnam, Jaiswal repeated the trick with an astonishing unbeaten 214, with his 12 sixes a joint record in any Test innings.
That terrific knock saw England set a world-record target of 557 when India declared at 430-4. England’s most ambitious chase yet never got going as the early dismissals of Ben Duckett (4) and Zak Crawley (11) left them facing humiliation.
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Things got worse for England from there, with Jadeja posting figures of 5-41 as the India attack finished off the shellshocked tourists for just 122.
India will now have the chance to wrap up a series victory in Ranchi next week, while questions abound for England after their most comprehensive defeat under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum.
It’s @imjadeja with the final breakthrough 😎 #TeamIndia win the 3rd Test by 434 runs! 👏👏
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/FM0hVG5X8M#TeamIndia | #INDvENG | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/A4juPRkWX8
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 18, 2024
With India resuming on 196-2, England were in desperate need of early wickets, but none came as Shubman Gill and Kuldeep Yadav (27) picked up where they left off on Saturday.
India’s lead stood at 372 by the time Gill was run out for 91 in search of a single that wasn’t there, and his exit simply spelled more bad news for England as opener Jaiswal returned after retiring with back trouble on 104 the previous evening.
Jaiswal smashed the England attack all over the park, his 12 sixes matching Wasim Akram’s record set against Zimbabwe in 1996. Joe Root finished with figures of 1-111 while Rehan Ahmed was 1-108, summing up the tourists’ struggles.
When India declared on 434-4, Stokes’ ultra-aggressive side faced the dilemma of whether to chase down the most daunting of targets or attempt to bat out around 130 overs for the draw.
Ultimately, India deprived them of that choice with help from some calamitous play from Duckett and Crawley, a mix-up between the duo seeing the former run out before Jasprit Bumrah clipped the top of leg stump to account for the latter.
England were 20-3 when Jadeja got his first dismissal, Ollie Pope (3) edging his delivery through to Rohit Sharma, then the spinner doubled up by bowling Jonny Bairstow (4) lbw.
A superb hundred with the bat in the 1st innings and a five-wicket haul in the 2nd innings 🙌
The local lad @imjadeja receives the Player of the Match award 🏆 in Rajkot 👏👏
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/FM0hVG5X8M#INDvENG | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/Fa99xqv8WG
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 18, 2024
The most marginal of umpire’s calls cost England their fifth as Joe Root (7) was also accounted for by Jadeja, the edge of the ball just catching off stump, but there was no questioning Stokes’ dismissal for 15, following his wild swipe off Kuldeep.
England thought they might have forced a fifth day as Ben Foakes (16) and Tom Hartley (16) steadied the ship momentarily, but the former’s edge was held by Dhruv Jurel, then Ravichandran Ashwin returned to account for the latter, having left the India camp due to a family emergency on Friday.
Mark Wood salvaged some small pride with his 33 off 15 balls as India closed in on victory, but his dismissal proved a fitting end to the match as he picked out Jaiswal off Jadeja’s ball, the two India heroes combining to wrap up the biggest Test win in their country’s history.
🚨 𝙍𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝘼𝙡𝙚𝙧𝙩! 🚨
With a winning margin of 434 runs in Rajkot, #TeamIndia register their biggest Test victory ever 👏🔝
A historic win courtesy of some memorable performances 👌👌
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/FM0hVG5X8M#INDvENG | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/nXbjlAYq7K
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 18, 2024
