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Following his match-winning knock in the fourth Test against England, India wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel said in the middle of the tense chase of 192 runs, he and his batting partner broke down the remainder of the target into sets of 10 runs each.
Indian youngsters Shubman Gill and Dhruv Jurel's remarkable efforts with the bat took the hosts across the finishing line, helping the hosts clinch the series with a five-wicket victory in the fourth Test against England on Monday. India now has an unassailable 3-1 series lead over England, with a match to spare. After helping the hosts come out on the winning side of a nervy run chase, Jurel said he has oriented his game to play as per the situation while also praising his batting partners for supporting him. He also said it was a great learning experience playing against a formidable English attack featuring the likes of old warhorse James Anderson and Mark Wood. He said he saw some of the English stalwarts on television in his formative years in cricket. "I want to adapt my game to whatever the situation demands. During our first innings, I thought that the more I score, the fewer would be our deficit with England and the fewer we would have to chase in the second innings. During the first innings, we lost quite a few wickets upfront and I had to bat with the tail-enders. Thankfully, however, I got a partnership going with the lower-order batters. The tail-enders also deserve credit for the way they hung around with me," Jurel said. On battling against the likes of Anderson and Wood in the third Test, he said, "It felt good playing against them because I saw them on TV. The idea was to play the ball, not the bowler. Gill and I were having mid-pitch discussions on completing small tasks, to approach the chase in sets of ten runs each." In what has been a promising start to his red-ball career, Jurel scored a gutsy 46 in his debut Test at Rajkot and was unlucky to miss out on his maiden Test fifty. In the second Test as well, he missed out on his maiden ton but gave the selectors a happy headache with match-turning hands with the willow across both innings. In what was a must-win Test, England chose to bat first after winning the toss and closed their first innings at 353, riding majorly on a fine comeback century by premier batter and former skipper Joe Root (122* in 274 balls, 10 fours), a half-century from Ollie Robinson (58 in 96 balls, with nine fours and a six) and Ben Foakes (47 in 126 balls, with four boundaries and a six). Ravindra Jadeja (4/67) and Akash Deep (3/83) were the pick of the bowlers for India. India were bundled out for 307 in their first innings in reply to England's 353. Despite Yashasvi Jaiswal (73 in 117 balls, with eight fours and a six) firing once again, India were reduced to 219/7 before Jurel (90 in 149 balls, with six fours and four sixes) joined forces with Kuldeep (28 in 131 balls) to stitch a 76-run stand for the eighth wicket and dragged India past the 300-run mark. Spinner Shoaib Bashir troubled Indian batters, picking up his maiden five-wicket haul (5/119). Tom Hartley (3/68) and James Anderson (2/48) also registered impressive figures. The lion-hearted rearguard effort by Jurel, in the company of the lower order, not only lifted India from the dumps but also helped reduce England's first-innings lead to 46 runs. In their second innings, England were shot out for just 145 runs, with Zak Crawley (60 in 91 balls, with seven fours) and Jonny Bairstow (30 in 42 balls, with three fours) offering some resistance. Spinners took all the 10 wickets for India, with Ravichandran Ashwin (5/51) and Kuldeep Yadav (4/22) leading the bowling charts for the hosts. Chasing 192 for an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series, the hosts were off to a fine start, with skipper Rohit Sharma (55 in 81 balls, with five fours and a six) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (37 in 44 balls, with five fours) putting on an 84-run opening stand. However, that was before Bashir brought the visitors back into the game, picking up 3/79 and reducing India to 120/5. Thereafter, Shubman Gill (52* in 124 balls, with two sixes) and Dhruv Jurel (39* in 77 balls, with two fours) guided India to a series win by five wickets. (ANI)
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