Birmingham: Jasprit Bumrah wreaked havoc with the bat and blew away England’s top order with the ball to put India in a strong position in the rearranged fifth Test at Edgbaston on Saturday.
England seamer Stuart Broad sent down Test cricket’s most expensive over, conceding 35 runs in eight deliveries including a wide and a no-ball, after Bumrah’s spectacular onslaught.
India’s stand-in captain then claimed three wickets to reduce England to 60-3 at tea on a rain-affected second day. They lost two more wickets when play eventually resumed with crisis man Joe Root caught behind for 31 to Mohammed Siraj and senior paceman Mohammed Shami sent back Jack Leach (0) to end the day at 84 for five, still 332 runs adrift of India’s first innings total of 416.
Earlier, Bumrah denied the hosts a strong start in their reply to India’s first-innings score. The seamer breached Alex Lees’s (six) defence with a length delivery and had Zak Crawley (nine) and Ollie Pope (10) caught in the slips before rain returned to halt India’s charge.
After the touring side had resumed on 338-7, overnight batsman Ravindra Jadeja (104) completed his third Test century before falling to James Anderson who returned figures of 5-60.
Jadeja’s 222-run stand with fellow centurion Rishabh Pant dragged India back into the contest after they had slumped to 98-5 on Friday.
If Pant’s marvellous 146 had given India an upper hand on Friday, it was Jadeja’s turn to reach his century in a knock where he started on an attacking note, but dropped anchor as Pant became the aggressor.
Bumrah then hammered Broad in a stunning show of boundaries to claim the world record of most runs scored in an over of Test cricket, surpassing the previous record in the hands of Brian Lara, George Bailey and Keshav Maharaj. For England, who leaked 78 runs in 11.5 overs to wrap India’s innings, James Anderson picked his sixth five-wicket haul (5/60) against India in Test cricket.Whe
Broad dismissed Shami for his 550th Test wicket before the seamer was mauled by Bumrah, who is leading India after regular skipper Rohit Sharma tested positive for Covid-19.
