India pummel England for record win
Test match to romp to a 434-run win, their biggest victory in terms of runs.
India now lead 2-1 with two Tests to play and once again look like a force at home. For some time now the template has been to play on rank turners at home, and this has resulted in a lottery of sorts. But, with England attacking relentlessly, India returned to the old model.
On a Rajkot pitch that was built to last five days, with wear and tear coming into play at the back end, India played to their strengths and pulled off a perfect home Test. Records fell along the way. Yashasvi Jaiswal, returning to the crease, creamed 12 sixes — equalling the mark Wasim Akram set in the course of his unlikely double-hundred against Zimbabwe — and became the third Indian to score back-to-back double-hundreds in a series.
Jaiswal batted with such aggression and clarity that England’s bowlers knew they were on a hiding to nothing. But, even before the southpaw came to the fore, Shubman Gill had killed the game as a contest, in the company of Kuldeep Yadav, the nightwatchman.
Gill batted compactly and smartly, easing to 91 in his typically pleasing manner before he was run out, a mixup cutting him short. There was every chance Gill would have gone on to make a monstrous score and his disappointment was obvious as he trudged off the field. Truth be told, India dictated not only the tempo of the game but where it was headed. Jaiswal and Sarfaraz Khan did not just occupy the crease, they attacked the bowling and with every over made England’s doom more
