ENG vs IND: Ravindra Jadeja Creates History, Becomes First WTC Player To Achieve Unique Feat

Hyderabad: Ravindra Jadeja continued his stellar run with the bat in the third Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar trophy, playing a knock of 72 runs. His innings played a key role in helping the team level the total amassed by the opposition side. This was Jadeja’s consecutive fifty, and he inked his name in the record books with his knock.

Jadeja has been a magnificent contributor for the national side with both bat and ball.

Jadeja scripts history

The 36-year-old scored his 15th fifty in the history of the World Test Championship (WTC). He also has 130-plus wickets (134) and more than 2000 runs to his name. With his 15th half-century, he became the first player across the globe to score 15 half-centuries and take more than 130 wickets in WTC history.

The left-handed batter has been playing a key role for the Indian team in the ongoing Test series against England, and his fifties in the last match turned out to be decisive in India’s triumph.

Scores levelled in the first innings

After England posted 387 while batting first, India came up with a strong response in the match. KL Rahul scored a century (100) while Rishabh Pant (74) and Ravindra Jadeja (72) scored fifties. It was only the ninth such instance when the first innings scores were levelled in the history of Test cricket.

The occasion marked only the ninth time in the history of Test cricket when both teams have posted identical scores in the first innings. With both teams scoring 387, this has become the fifth-highest such total, and each of the four higher ones has ended in a draw.

The first instance of the same first innings scores occurred in the Test between England and South Africa in Durban in 1910, when both sides posted 199. The highest score in such instances was in the England vs West Indies Test in Antigua in 1994, when both teams racked up a massive 593.

In the list, the team total of the current Test - 387 stands in the fifth position. India features thrice on the list; the first time it was against West Indies in 1958 at Kanpur (222), the second instance came against England at Birmingham in 1986 (390), and the third instance occurred in the ongoing Test.

Series levelled at 1-1

The Anderson-Tendulkar trophy is currently levelled at 1-1, and so the series is at a decisive stage. England won the first match, but India bounced back with a victory in the second fixture. The hosts won the second contest of the series by a huge margin of 336 runs, thanks to a brilliant display of pace bowling from Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj.