India found their man of the hour in Yashasvi Jaiswal. The 22-year-old showed remarkable maturity for someone playing in only his sixth Test. His temperament for daddy hundreds saved the day for the hosts. The first-day track was the best time to bat on, but it still needed batters to buckle down to the task.
England persisted with their attacking tactics but in eschewing risk, Jaiswal’s innings prospered as the day progressed. Barring the one sweep that was uppish and eluded the fielder, Jaiswal hardly put a foot wrong. All his five sixes were clean hits.
The southpaw was the dominating partner in all the major partnerships he was involved in, the most productive being the third-wicket stand of 90 with Shreyas Iyer. Left-arm spinner Tom Hartley was reserved for special treatment as Jaiswal smacked him for three boundaries in the 45th over. He then hoisted Hartley over long-on to reach his century off 151 balls.
“I wanted to play it session by session. When they were bowling well, I just wanted to get through that spell. However, I wanted to convert loose balls and play till the end,” Jaiswal said. The left-hander missed out on a hundred in Hyderabad and wanted to make it count here.
“Rahul (Dravid) sir and Rohit bhai kept giving me the confidence and told me to convert this into a big innings and stay till the end,” he said.
Jaiswal needed medical attention towards the end of day’s play as he suffered from cramps, but he hopes to build on this knock. “I would love to double this up,” he said.
