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What’s the best way to go from 94 to 100? Why, hit a six! If Yashasvi Jaiswal had his way, he would have probably gone for the same to cross fifty but since Shoaib Bashir pulled the length on that ball he had to be content with a four. On 146, he skipped down the pitch to take Joe Root on the half volley and drove him through covers to reach 150.
These were but small milestones in a bigger accomplishment—a coming of age of an opener for the modern era. Again and again Jaiswal has shown he can hit boundaries at will but it’s his application, staggering control percentage of 90% and dogged resilience to see out an entire day’s exam that casts aside doubts about his ability to transform himself into a crisis man from being the new kid on the block.
A career high of 179 out a score of 336/6, where everyone got starts but only Jaiswal converted, lacing his innings with 22 boundary hits—17 fours and 5 sixes—means India can still hope for some more runs with the second new ball. Question is, how much is enough for England? Their rate of scoring at Hyderabad has essentially rendered par scores useless. And this proving to be a great batting surface, there can be no assurance as to what is enough to make England blink hard. Which is also why the visitors will take this score as long as they are confident of chipping away at India’s batting.
Like they have been doing all day. Six wickets might not sum up a blockbuster day for the bowlers but factor in the ease of batting and Jaiswal’s counter and England would think they have done pretty well. Even losing the toss was an inevitability they seemed prepared for as England took to the field with the intent of not letting India settle into any kind of rhythm. Which meant Anderson bowled five measly overs on the trot with Joe Root sharing the new ball, before Tom Hartley and debutant Shoaib Bashir got in, and again Root changed ends to pave the way for Hartley—all within the first hour of the morning session.
It got to Rohit Sharma, looking perplexingly defensive till Bashir got one to turn at 97 kph and steal an edge on the way to Ollie Pope at leg slip. Shubman Gill came in and quickly pounced on a full toss from Hartley before settling into a promising phase that saw him sweeping and driving Bashir twice for boundaries after steering Anderson towards third man for four.
But Anderson changed his line next over, bowling at almost the sixth stump that Gill poked to Foakes. Shreyas Iyer’s dismissal was more due to Foakes’s brilliance than Hartley’s spin as the England wicketkeeper stayed low to hold on to a very fine bottom edge. Patidar’s dismissal, in a sense embodied a bittersweet day for India as he too departed after effortlessly batting himself in. Reckless though were the dismissals of Axar Patel and KS Bharat who gave in to a rush of blood and holed out to backward point.
And then at the other end was Jaiswal, unflappable at preserving his wicket while treating every delivery according to his merit. “I wanted to play it session by session,” Jaiswal told the broadcasters after the end of the first day’s play. “When they were bowling well, I just wanted to get through that spell. Initially, the wicket was damp and there was spin and bounce, with a bit of seam. However, I wanted to convert the loose balls, and play till the end.”
The respect given to Anderson—who conceded just 30 runs in 17 overs—wasn’t misplaced as Jaiswal scored just eight off 47 balls from him. Rehan Ahmed came much later in the day but both the sixes off him were so authoritative that it looked premeditated. The broadcasters kept showing how both Bashir and Hartley were releasing the ball at an average height of 2.35m as against the global average of 2.1m but Jaiswal kept finding vacant areas if he wasn’t pulling or cutting them.
Jaiswal came down particularly hard on Hartley though, scoring 49 off 47 balls from the left-arm spinner. This was a time when Jaiswal connected everything, the 45th over being the high point of that phase as he was first hurried into going for a backfoot punch leading to a healthy edge that brushed Root’s fingertips at slip. Almost atoning for conceding that half-chance, Jaiswal first drilled a long half-volley between Hartley and mid-on before going wide of mid-off for three consecutive boundaries.
It was this sort of adjustment to different spells and bowlers that not only helped Jaiswal rack up a massive hundred but also stitch key partnerships—49 with Gill, 90 with Iyer, 70 with Patidar and 52 with Patel. With Ravichandran Ashwin at the other end, Jaiswal will once again be relied upon to take India to a safer score on Saturday. To which he said: “I would love to double this up, and play till the end for the team.”
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