IPMAT Indore 2026 · Verbal Ability · Question 27
IPMAT Indore 2026 previous year question on Sentence Improvement, with the answer and a step-by-step solution.
In the following sentence, the incorrect part is shown in bold. Choose an alternative from the four given options so that the sentence is rendered correct.
Even as the team’s die-hard fans lost all hopes of a win, alone came the last batsman and surpassed them with three sixes in a row, leading the team to its victory.
- A
alone came the last batsman and surprised
- B
along came the last batsman and surprised
- C
alone came the last batsman and superannuated
- D
along came the last batsman and superannuated
Answer & solution
Answer: Option B
Two separate errors must both be fixed.
Error 1 — alone should be along. The idiom is along came X, meaning X arrived unexpectedly. “Alone came the last batsman” is not idiomatic.
Error 2 — surpassed should be surprised. Surpass means to exceed or outdo, and takes a thing or standard as its object; you cannot “surpass the fans”. The sense required is that he astonished them.
Testing each option:
|
Option |
along? |
surprised? |
|---|---|---|
|
(a) alone / surprised |
✗ |
✓ |
|
(b) along / surprised |
✓ |
✓ |
|
(c) alone / superannuated |
✗ |
✗ |
|
(d) along / superannuated |
✓ |
✗ |
Only (b) fixes both. (Superannuated means retired or obsolete — nonsense here.)
Answer: Option 2
Shortcut. A two-error question with options laid out as a 2\times 2 grid. Decide each error independently — along over alone, surprised over superannuated — and the intersection gives the answer without reading all four options in full.
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