India 445 (Rohit 131, Jadeja 112, Sarfaraz 62, Wood 4-114) and 430 for 4 dec (Jaiswal 214*, Gill 91, Sarfaraz 68*) beat England 319 (Duckett 153, Siraj 4-84) and 122 (Wood 33, Jadeja 5-41) by 434 runs
India needed such a day. Just to send the message out to those who had started believing they could be taken down at home. A team in transition, India have lost three Tests in a little over three years, two more than they did in the preceding eight years, but in Rajkot they delivered an emphatic shellacking to their latest challengers: the 434-run win was India’s biggest by runs, and England’s second-biggest defeat.
That only gave Sarfaraz a chance to shine. He began his assault with slow-sweeps to foil Rehan Ahmed’s plan to bowl into the rough outside the leg stump. Then he took down Root, who had been bowling down the leg side. When he hit Rehan for a six, four and a six in the 98th over, there was half a thought even he might get a chance to covert his two fifties on debut into a fifty and a hundred. Rohit Sharma, though, pulled the plug on the innings, setting England 557 in about 130 overs.
The result might never have been in doubt, but India needed to correct something at the start of the innings having gone for four half-century opening stands in the last five innings. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj were on the money, and the ball moved a little bit for them. The innings started with two maidens, Ben Duckett took 12 balls to get off the mark, and then looked for a risky single in the seventh over, which converted into a run-out thanks to a sprint to the wicket from debuting wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel, who collected a throw on the half-volley and broke the wicket even while on the move. This was England’s first opening stand of under 40 in the series.