Ind vs Eng 3rd Test: Ravindra Jadeja shines with twin half-centuries despite India's loss at Lord's

Ravindra Jadeja during his unbeaten 61 off 181 balls vs England at Lord’s, London, on Monday. Pic/Getty Images

Ravindra Jadeja's hand went instinctively towards his helmet in sheer and utter disbelief, his eyes blank, his face swathed in complete dismay. He couldn't comprehend what had just happened; in a way, his cricketing world had just crumbled around him.

For close to four-and-a-half hours, most of them alongside two pacers with most modest batting credentials, the all-rounder had waged a grim battle, backs to the wall but spirit unbowed, the mindset defiant. With first Jasprit Bumrah and later Mohammed Siraj, he put on 58 runs for the last two wickets. He farmed the strike, he kept out the good balls, he turned down singles, he barely put a foot wrong.

Nearly scuppered England

The 36-year-old was intent on turning a lost cause around. At 112 for eight when Nitish Kumar Reddy was dismissed at the stroke of lunch, with India still 81 short of victory on Monday's final afternoon at Lord's, evening plans were being made, reports had been completed with just the blank (margin of victory) to be filled in. Jadeja made them all redundant, almost scuppering England's victory plans too until Siraj's fall, playing Shoaib Bashir on to trigger the aforementioned Jadeja reactions, allowed the hosts to escape to a 22-run win.

Several of England's players, having celebrated with gusto, quickly made a beeline to Jadeja, patting him on his helmet and his chest, acknowledging the fighter in him even in their moment of glory. That would have come as scant consolation for the all-rounder from Saurashtra, who for once forsake the bat-twirl on reaching his half-century because so much work lay ahead of him.

Jadeja's iconic bat-twirl had manifested itself in three previous innings on the trot, following fifties in both innings at Edgbaston and in the first innings too at Lord's. Since beginning to believe that he ‘belonged' as a Test batter, from the summer of 2018, he averages 42.38 in 47 Tests and 71 innings, during which period he has struck all his four hundreds. He has gone from an optimistic dasher to a solid, reliable middle-order presence that bridges the top half of the batting order with the bottom half seamlessly, effectively.

Keeping it tight

His left-arm spin hasn't been penetrative - he has taken just three wickets in 99 overs - but he has given Shubman Gill the control that others apart from Jasprit Bumrah haven't been able to. His economy of 3.34 is next only to Bumrah's (2.90) and his ability to bowl long spells means he has encouraged Gill to attack with pace from one end almost all the time, manifesting in wickets galore for Mohammed Siraj (13), Bumrah (12) and Akash Deep (11). Washington Sundar took more wickets in one innings alone than Jadeja has all series, but Gill hasn't always employed Jadeja as an attacking force and therefore must be delighted with the trade-off between penetration and parsimony.

His inability to get his team over the line despite straining every sinew at Lord's will hurt the warrior in Jadeja. What that leads to should make for interesting viewing over the next three weeks.

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Ravindra Jadeja's average in the ongoing Test series vs England. The southpaw has scored 327 runs in three games including four half-centuries