Playing in his hometown, Ravindra Jadeja starred with both bat and ball to steer India to a thumping win over England in the third Test in Rajkot. Jadeja reflected on his brilliant all-round performance after winning the player of the match award.
In the first innings, Team India was in trouble at 33/3 but was bailed out by Jadeja and skipper Rohit Sharma. Jadeja was promoted to 5, and he made a fine 100. His stand of 204 with the skipper rescued India, as they posted 445.
On the 204 run partnership with Rohit, Jadeja commented:
“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 to 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.”
After scalping two wickets in the first session, Jadeja dismantled the English batting lineup with a five-wicket haul. The left-arm spinner said that on the Rajkot pitch, the spinners must bowl in good areas to earn their wickets.
“On this wicket, you won’t get easy wickets; you have to work hard for it. You need to bowl balls in good areas; you have to earn your wickets.
“Lots of turning points; it was a good toss to win. We know how important it is to win the toss in India. The way we came back and bowled after that onslaught,”
Rohit lauded the bowlers for showing up even in the absence of their most experienced bowler, Ravichandran Ashwin, when he was out for a brief period during Day 3 of the test match. He acknowledged the efforts of the debutants, Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel, and also Jadeja, who took five wickets in the fourth innings to run through the English lineup.
“The bowlers showed a lot of character, not to forget we did not have our most experienced bowler as well. With the bat, we knew the job was half-done; those two youngsters got us the lead we wanted, and obviously Jadeja with the ball in the 2nd innings was superb.
On Yashasvi Jaiswal’s double ton, Rohit said: “I have spoken a lot about him, in Vizag as well. People outside the changeroom have spoken as well. I don’t want to talk too much about him; he has started his career on a high. I want him to continue doing well; yeah, looks like a good player.”
Ben Stokes’ 100th Test turned out to be a forgettable affair. In their first innings, England slid from 224 for 2 to 319 all out as they surrender and India maintained a 126 tun lead. Later the Men in blue ended up posting a mammoth target of 557 to win the third Test. The visitors were never in the run-chase. They succumbed to the pressure and were skittled out in 39.4 overs to lose by a whopping 434 runs. Stokes heaped praise on Ben Duckett, who was England’s lone centurion with the bat.
“Ben Duckett played an unbelievable innings,” said Stokes.
Stokes revealed that he had plans in mind which didn’t work out, and thus his team fell short of what was a huge target for the team chase in the fourth innings.
“That was the tone we wanted to set throughout the innings. It was about identifying that opportunity and getting as close to India’s total. We wanted to bowl yesterday, but it was earlier than when we wanted.”
With this defeat, England is 1-2 down in the five-match series. The ever-optimistic Stokes reckons that with two games to go, his team can still make a comeback to win back-to-back Tests in Ranchi and Dharamshala. England now has a few days off before the fourth Test in Ranchi, which begins on Friday.
“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,” concluded Stokes.