Yashasvi Jaiswal hits special ton as 10-man India boss England on Day 3 of 3rd Test at Rajkot

India dismiss England for 319 before racing to a 322-run overall lead on the back of Yashasvi Jaiswal’s blazing hundred on Day 3 of the Rajkot Test.

If late on Day 2 it was Ben Duckett’s breathtaking hundred that swung the momentum of the third Test England’s way, India’s rising batting star Yashasvi Jaiswal wrested the initiative back with an exhilarating hundred in the final session on Day 3. India scored 150 runs in the last session on Saturday, lifting them to 196/2 in the second innings and setting up a super Sunday for the Rajkot crowd. The hosts were in with a chance to push for victory, their lead already worth 322 runs on a pitch where some balls turned square.

Yashasvi Jaiswal celebrates his century during Day 3 of the 3rd Test match against England, at Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot (ANI )

Tests are not won and lost on momentum alone though. There’s always room for fightback if you have the stomach for it. India showed that gloriously on Saturday despite being down to 10 men, having lost their 500-wicket man and home bowling linchpin R Ashwin, who had to rush home to Chennai overnight due to a personal emergency.

Later in the day, Jaiswal showed England the old way of building an innings with the same flair, before retiring hurt for back spasms soon after getting his century. He was 35 off 73 balls before cutting loose against inexperienced spinners and two tiring fast bowlers. The next 65 runs in his hundred came off only 49 balls, which were as stroke-filled as Duckett’s – plenty of straight sixes and a few reverse-sweeps too -- as if he was making a point to the visitors. India needed a foot in the door against the rampaging English batters. And Joe Root provided just that opportunity.

AWKWARD ROOT

Freeze the frame: 35 balls into the day, Root gets into his act, trying to reverse ramp, Jasprit Bumrah no less, over slips. Root, having got into an awkward posture and with all the stumps exposed, tries to push one over the cordon. This was England’s second-highest Test run-scorer with 11,486 runs to his name, ripping off the coaching manual in trying to embrace England's Bazball approach.

Not for the first time in the series, Root’s extravagance didn’t pay off. Jaiswal took an outstanding catch at second slip, off the second attempt. Root was gone for 18, falling for the ninth time to Bumrah in Tests. There were many things wrong about the timing of the shot, if not the shot itself. Root was enduring one of his worst series in India, Bumrah had an edge over him, and the ball was reversing.

Fair to presume, had Root chosen to bat this way through his career, he wouldn’t have scored the number of runs he has. It’s difficult to believe Root isn’t aware why he is one of the more feared Test batters. Not because he can score quickly – they have others to do that -- but because he can score big. It’s a tradeoff, going for high impact in the shorter period at the crease, for which Root has signed up for. At the moment, India is benefitting.

With Root gone and Kuldeep spun a web around England batters in the morning session. Funnily, Ben Stokes -- one half of the brain behind Bazball, was the only batter willing to apply himself.

Only Stokes seemed to realise that there will still be times when, despite the commitment to play an all-out, entertainment game, one has to take a backward step, before moving forward again. Condensing a 450-over contest significantly and getting the desired result all the time won’t happen all the time.

Stokes played out a fiery Bumrah spell where he was reversing the ball a will. The England skipper, despite looking uncomfortable, survived. It was another matter that Stokes could not go on and capitalise with a big one. But he showed the rest of his batters that they made some wrong choices in attack.

ENGLAND COLLAPSE

After Stokes fell, caught brilliantly by Bumrah at deep mid-wicket trying to clear Ravindra Jadeja (41 off 89b), England’s batting

collapsed. The last five wickets fell for 20 runs. The wrecker-in-chief was Mohammed Siraj, the wily fast bowler from Hyderabad who loves to run-in hard and bowl long spells. “Once we knew Ash bhai (Ashwin) is not there, our responsibility increased. Rohit

bhai (Sharma) told us the same thing, that we will have to bowl long spells,” Siraj told reporters after Saturday’s play. “That’s something I enjoy because you can’t set up a batter in 3 or 4 overs in Test cricket.” Explaining his successful day (21.2-1-84-4), Siraj said all he was trying to do was to target the stumps as the ball was keeping too

low, as going in search of outside edges wasn’t the smart thing to do. Siraj got one to hold to Ben Foakes (41) and got him caught at mid-on. He also polished off the tail, with off-stump yorkers to Rehan Ahmed and James Anderson. The Bazballers were bundled out for 319 after being 207/2 after the second day.

England say it can happen. “Stokesy spoke to us before we went out to field and he wanted us to get out today and have a bowl at them and get cracking with it. It was slightly earlier than planned, we didn't plan to have the collapse we did but there are options this team takes,” said Duckett. When you're playing this exciting brand of cricket and always taking the positive option, you have to stay level.”