KL Rahul rises to career-best rank after Indias triumph over Australia

Steve Smith is disconsolate after chopping a bowl onto his stumps.

Earlier, the record was in name of India’s all-rounder Kapil Dev and Australian speedster Mitchell Johnson. Having managed to exercise some control over the Indian camp on the first two days they lost little time in showcasing their ugly side on the field here on Monday.

Ashwin, who picked up three wickets in the second session, also heaped praise on pacers Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar for bowling tight spells.

He had solid support from Saha, who was fortunate to still be at the crease given Matt Renshaw’s drop off the bowling of Cummins the previous evening.

Before the end of second day’s play, Jadeja hammered Steve O’Keefe for a six and on the third day, Smith wouldn’t dare bring on O’Keeffe while Jadeja was batting.

The feisty Jadeja said his next aim was to score a hundred.

Jadeja, who left Ravichandran Ashwin behind to bag the top slot in the ICC’s Test bowler rankings, bagged the “Man of the Match” title for his performance. The umpire Marais Erasmus raised his finger instantly, but Jadeja reviewed just as fast. The replays showed that there was day light between the bat and the ball. Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins ran in hard, Australia attacked, but Jadeja refused to budge. “I was sure that there wasn’t any edge, I just told Saha that it’s a bit tough situation but we will have to play it out”. What’s not to like about Ravindra Jadeja? He finished as the leading wicket-taker of the series with 25 scalps.

Although the visitors lead by 60 runs, Umesh Yadav (2-22) got the breakthrough as David Warner (6) was caught behind in the fourth over. Jadeja even survived an lbw shout via DRS on the very first ball of the day. At 63/4 in the last innings, the Australians had to dig deep to stay alive in the series. Ajinkya Rahane and Peter Handscomb were tied in 198 runs apiece. Jadeja then got rid of Marsh cheaply, caught at short leg. And yesterday, the third day of the fourth Test at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium here, the tough-cutie Jadeja put Australians to the sword, with his bat, ball and words.

For all the seesawing fortunes, a first innings total of 300, when Australia was 1-144, can be looked back upon as the moment when the game truly slipped away.

Wade needled the allrounder about his love of selfies on Instagram then started probing Jadeja about his struggles to get a game on India’s tour of the West Indies past year.