Yashasvi Jaiswal slammed a match-winning century in the Perth Test against Australia.
This was Jaiswal’s maiden Test ton Down Under in his first appearance on Australian soil. After falling for a duck in the first innings to Mitchell Starc, the southpaw bounced back strongly in the second dig, smashing 161 off 297 balls with 15 boundaries and 3 sixes.
His knock and vital contributions from Virat Kohli (100*) and KL Rahul (77) propelled India to 487/6 (declared).
Chasing the mammoth target of 534, Australia’s second innings folded for 238 in 58.4 overs as the visitors won the game by 295 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Impressed with his match-winning hundred, former England skipper Alastair Cook said he enjoyed Jaiswal’s brilliance against Australia.
“We’ve seen his celebration enough here, but it’s more enjoyable against Australia than England, certainly,” Cook said on TNT Sports, referring to Jaiswal’s remarkable run in the Test series against England, where he aggregated a staggering 712 runs.
During the Perth Test, Jaiswal hogged the headlines for his brutal sledge at Starc. The 22-year-old sledged the Aussie pacer by saying, "You are coming too slow."
Cook was also impressed with Jaiswal’s sledging game. “And sledging Mitchell Starc, saying at a certain stage, I think he wasn’t on 100, he wasn’t on anything on a major score, but he’s telling him you’re bowling slow,” he said.
“And I’ve faced Mitchell Starc and he certainly doesn’t bowl slow. And if he was bowling slow, I’d keep my mouth shut and not wind him up, but have the confidence to do that as a 22-year-old.
“I think he scored the most runs as any Indian player up to after 15 test matches at the top of the order, which I’ll keep saying it, no one else believes me, it’s the hardest place to bat. What a classy player he is.”
The former England opener said he was pleasantly surprised to see how Australia got hammered by India in Perth.
“I was surprised. I was surprised that India have gone there and hammered Australia in what normally is a very hard place to go and play cricket, Perth. I know it’s not the WACA. I know it’s the new stadium, but still, historically, Australia don’t lose many games there,” Cook stated.
“I thought India was so brave. I thought that first, you know, the win the toss and bat on that wicket, you know, you look there, even though there’s only 150 they got, you know, the thought process to say, we’re going to take Australia on there. We know it’s going to be hard, but we think it’s going to be hard for both sides only, and then it’ll be a one-inning game.
“You know, I think most captains would have bowled first, certainly would have done and probably got the end of a bad result, like normally in Australia. But India took it on brilliantly. It was just an all-round fantastic performance. You think bowled up 150, you think we’re struggling here, but to bounce back when you’ve got Boomer up with the new ball on those kinds of wickets, he’s always going to be outstanding and backed up by team.
“And just think of how brave they were. They didn’t bother playing Ashwin who’s got 500 Test wickets. They’ve kind of played a couple of like, not makes you spinners, but you know, I thought Ashwin would have been outstanding, but you know, great thinking by them.
“And isn’t it nice to see Australia get thrashed?”