INDIA TOUR OF ENGLAND, 2025
Yashasvi Jaiswal registered his sixth Test hundred as India took their lead closer to the 300 mark © Getty
Yashasvi Jaiswal’s sixth Test hundred helped India extend their lead to 281, but England clawed their way back with three wickets on the third afternoon to make amends for a tough morning session, in which they conceded 114 runs for just one wicket and watched nightwatch Akash Deep bring up his maiden Test fifty.
The afternoon began with a first-ball wicket and it was the big one of Shubman Gill, who had looked serene in his brief stay before Lunch but fell to an in-seaming, in-swinging delivery from Gus Atkinson that trapped him in front. The dismissal left Gill 20 runs short of Sunil Gavaskar’s record tally of 774 runs, the most by an Indian batter in a Test series.
Karun Nair’s jittery stay at the crease saw him fending awkwardly at short balls, prodding outside off-stump and finally gloving behind a rising delivery from Atkinson.
Amidst all that, Jaiswal brought up his hundred, his second of the series and fourth against England, with a nudge behind square. It was a shot that was symbolic of his run-scoring on the innings; 82 of his first 100 runs came behind square, the most by any batter at the time of reaching a century among 1526 Test hundreds in the available database.
England’s pacers kept coming back for spells and it finally paid off when Jaiswal, trying to upper cut again, picked out third man and fell for 118, handing Josh Tongue a deserved wicket.
There was a brief moment of drama when Ravindra Jadeja was adjudged lbw to a full inswinger from Tongue, but he survived on review with the impact shown to be just outside off. Meanwhile, England’s fielding continued to let them down, with Zak Crawley shelling another slip catch, their sixth drop of the innings.
India’s morning belonged to Akash Deep, who raised three successive milestones: his highest Test score, a maiden international fifty (off 70 balls) and his best-ever first-class score. He also became the first Indian nightwatch batter since Amit Mishra in 2011 to score a Test fifty, coincidentally at the same venue and against the same opponent.
It was Jamie Overton who eventually broke the 107-run stand with a leading edge that carried to point, but India were on course, having brought up their 100 in just 23 overs and then went on to take it past 300 in the afternoon.
Brief Scores: India 224 & 304/6 (Jaiswal 118, Akash Deep 66; Atkinson 3-99) lead England 247 by 281 runs.
© Cricbuzz
