IND Vs ENG Fifth Test: England would have never thought about it that they had to struggle this much against India after their series masterclass against New Zealand, chasing three scores of 280+ on a trot.
The hosts were just dreaded by a horrific spell by Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami and were left with 84/5 in reply to India’s 416 in the first innings, thanks to Pant, Jadeja, and skipper Bumrah’s contribution.
Mohammed Siraj did the biggest nightmare for England removing their ace batter Joe Root with a short ball that took a nick of his gloves and went straight into the Pant’s hands. He made 31 runs and was looking in touch.
Jasprit Bumrah did captaincy things on the 2nd day of the fifth test when he showed his all-round abilities to all those who didn’t believe in him as a batter.
Bumrah smashed 35 runs of a single over by Broad to create the record of scoring most runs in an over following which he rattled the English top-order with sensational spell picking up Lees, Crawley, and Burns.
While Pant and Bumrah had their different typical aggressive innings, Jadeja on one end was the sole reason how Rishabh Pant got this much freedom to play his natural game. Ravindra Jadeja throughout his innings of 104 was clear about his intent and selection of shots.
He didn’t look a bit nervous in his 194-ball innings and made a record partnership with Pant. This was his third century in test cricket while his first outside Asia. His 3D game is the reason why he always looked ahead of Ravichandran Ashwin on overseas tours.
His batting from the past 5 years is a revolution. During this period, he has scored runs at an average of around 45, this is more than David Warner’s average in this period. He has also hit 16 of his 17 half-centuries and all 3 centuries during this tenure.
Jasprit Bumrah handed the triple hit to the English team by removing both of the openers and Ollie Pope in his first astonishing spell of (3/30) in 7 overs. Not just with the ball, 28-year-old paceman also took a toll on hosts’ minds with his blitz in 16 balls.
While coming in at number 10, the stand-in-skipper went behind the same bowler of whom Yuvraj Singh went 15 years back in the 2007 T20 World Cup.
Stuart Broad became a victim of another Indian batting maestro. He probably would have thought that using short pitch deliveries will trouble Bumrah. Instead, it backfired him and leaked 35 runs in a single over.
With that, Broad created an unwanted record of giving the most runs in an over in test cricket after the same record in T20Is when Singh smashed him for 36 runs in one over.
Bumrah smashed 31 runs with 4 fours and 2 sixes in a small cameo which helped India go past 400+ total. This was the first time that India scored above 400 runs in an innings after losing 5 wickets in 100 or fewer runs.
Day 3 awaits to witness the magic of the Indian bowling unit once again as England will look to take control with Bairstow and Stokes in the middle.
By: Mohit Singhal
