It wasn’t even a question of England going up in flames in pursuit of a world record. Instead, they were utterly, comprehensively and humiliatingly defeated by India.
So bad were England when they were demolished for 122, losing this third Test by a whopping 434 runs, that the last two days have been virtually indistinguishable from the darkest times at the end of the Joe Root regime that led to the birth of Bazball.
This was a much more comprehensive drubbing than the three heavy league defeats the last time England were here three years ago. Even more bruises than anything sustained during that miserable one-win-in-17 run in the dog days of Root’s captaincy.
Thank God, you have to go back to before the Second World War to find a blow as statistically terrible as this one for England. Yes, despite all the good work over the last two years and the exciting start to this series in Hyderabad, this really was that bad.
“They’re not hitting anything now,” Jasprit Bumrah said in Hindi through the stump microphone during England’s demise, and it was certainly India who played all the elaborate and exciting cricket here. India beating England at their own game.
England once again collapsed with the bat as they lost the third Test against India by 434 runs
Yashasvi Jaiswal dominated the England bowlers with a double century, achieved before England’s declaration
The India opener broke a world record of 12 sixes as he hit his second consecutive double century in just his seventh Test
For Bazball, read Jaisball as a new superstar who has emerged in the last two Tests in the form of 22-year-old Yashasvi Jaiswal, who smashed his second successive double century in just his seventh Test with a world record 12 sixes.
What a talent the left-hander is and how appropriate that he went past Ben Stokes’ tally of 11 sixes in an innings, made in that famous double century of his own in Cape Town, on his way to an unbeaten 214. Only Wasim Akram has ever done so much hit in one fell swoop.
Jaiswal’s extraordinary display of calculated ferocity not only allowed India to declare at 430 for four, giving England an impossible 557 to win, but it also gave them more than four sessions to seal the victory that gave them a 2-1 leads in the series with two to play. .
They hardly needed one. It was Ben Duckett who on Saturday, when asked how many runs England could chase here, said: ‘the more the merrier. This team is all about doing special things. They can have as many as they want, and we’re going to get them.”
Ben Duckett had said it was ‘the more the merrier’ for England in terms of the chase
The opener had played one of England’s best overseas innings earlier in the Test but ran himself out four times.
If Duckett’s tongue was in his cheek it was well hidden, but even this ultra-positive England team seemed to know defeat was inevitable as they began their second innings.
There was none of their usual dynamism and bravado. Instead, like so many English teams in India before them, they looked meek, hesitant and defeated before they started.
How long ago does it seem that Duckett played one of the great overseas innings by an English batsman, sweeping, pulling and distracting India. Now he put himself ahead of four thanks to hesitation that belonged to a different era and clever work from Dhruv Jurel.
It was the start of a disastrous slide with Zak Crawley perhaps unluckily giving lbw to Bumrah – the doubt could easily have remained in the batsman’s favor – Ollie Pope cut loosely and slipped and Jonny Bairstow missed a sweep. Bairstow has only conceded seven balls in this Test, looks completely out of form and is going through a miserable run after a dismal World Cup.
Jonny Bairstow has conceded just seven balls in the Test and is having a miserable run so far
Stokes and Root did their best to stem the tide, batting conventionally rather than attempting any of the audacity that led to Root’s demise in the first innings in particular, but once they were gone the only question whether England could win with it on a final day. .
They couldn’t. It was all over when Ravichandran Ashwin, back from the family crisis that led to his return to Chennai on Friday, bowled Tom Hartley and then, after a series of shots from Mark Wood, Ravindra Jadeja had the final say. The game is mostly over in four days.
What a find Jaiswal is for India and what a journey he made when he left his home in Utter Pradesh as a boy to seek his cricketing fame and fortune in Mumbai, where he lived in a groundsman’s tent at the famous Azad Maidan before starting his career to make. name.
This was a double century of two halves. Jaiswal made 104 on day three before retiring with back pain and returning yesterday to complete an even better double hundred than the one that produced India’s leveling victory in Visakhapatnam.
Ravichandran Ashwin, back from the family crisis that led to his return to Chennai on Friday, was back to help India to victory
Mark Wood was his usual aggressive self, hitting 33 before he was the last wicket to fall
In the process, he became the third-youngest player to score two Test double centuries at 22 years and 49 days, and inflicted on England the kind of severe punishment they have become more accustomed to dishing out themselves in the past two years.
No one suffered more than Jimmy Anderson, who at the height of Jaiswal’s attack took three successive sixes, the first floundering, the second crashing over cover and the third going gloriously straight. At 41 years old, Anderson has to wonder what he did to deserve this.
Jaiswal was not the only Indian batsman to make life miserable for England. Another hard-hitting star has emerged here in the burly form of Sarfaraz Khan, who himself smashed three sixes in his unbeaten 68.
How fitting too that it was Sarfaraz who was with Jaiswal, his old friend from the Mumbai Maidan, as he reached his double century and unfolded his now familiar ‘Jude Bellingham’ celebration, arms outstretched as he received the cheers of a decent audience.
England could do little to stop Jaiswal, who at one point hit Jimmy Anderson for three consecutive sixes
By the time Rohit Sharma called time for a suffering England in India, thanks largely to their new Virender Sehwag-like figure at the top of the order, he had hit 28 sixes in this Test alone and 48 in the series with two more matches to play. And no party has ever matched that.
It left England completely shell-shocked and they hardly helped themselves in this Test. They missed a golden opportunity past India when Root’s ill-timed reverse disaster led to England’s last eight wickets falling to 95 in England’s first innings. What an ill-disciplined collapse that was. What a defining moment Root’s drive is likely to be in this series.
England were also sloppy in the field, dropping four catches and failing to reassess yesterday when Hartley had an lbw appeal against Kuldeep Yadav dismissed by Joel Wilson, only to see technology overturn it.
Ben Stokes’ side must regroup and win the final two Tests if they want to win the series overall
Three times England could have had wickets if they had overhauled poor decisions in this match, but their use of DRS was almost as poor as the rest of their cricket.
It looked like Saturday had been the worst day of the Bazball era, but it turned out not to be the worst day of the weekend for England.
They are still held in great honor for what they have done over the last two years, but they now face a monumental task in Ranchi and Dharamsala if they are to make any sense of what is confirmed to be the toughest of the overseas assignments in Test cricket.