The fifth day of the third match of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy ended up being an exhibition of some old-fashioned, hard-nosed Test cricket. The spice of the match, first sprinkled in the last over of Day 3, continued into the start of the fifth day and, remarkably, it closed out with shots of Harry Brook, Zak Crawley and Joe Root being among the first to console a distraught Mohammed Siraj, who was in their faces for most of the time they were at the crease with the bat, and England captain Ben Stokes giving Ravindra Jadeja a bear hug.
England won the Test by by 22 runs but that was only after they dealt with 50 overs and one delivery of resistance from India’s last three wickets, anchored by Jadeja who stayed unbeaten on 61 off 181 balls.
Most of the animosity was concentrated in the early exchanges of the day, in which Jofra Archer dismissed Rishabh Pant and Washington Sundar in a devastating early spell. Archer had donned the role of the pantomime villain in that period. He made sure to give send-offs to both the players that he dismissed. Even after he was taken off the attack, Archer remained in the batsmen’s faces, having some words with Nitish Kumar Reddy, notably. Brook could also be heard telling Reddy from the slips that he is no longer playing in the IPL.
Reddy also had a few words with Stokes but arguably the biggest flare-up was between Brydon Carse and Jadeja about four overs before Lunch. Jadeja ran right into Carse while running the first of the two runs the batters ran off the last ball of that over. Stokes came in between to break the two players up. Both players seemed to be telling each other that they didn’t do it on purpose and to be fair to them, they did look like they were blissfully unaware of each other before colliding in the replay of the incident.
Ravindra Jadeja ran right into Brydon Carse. (AP Photo)
The session had ended with Reddy’s wicket, leaving India down to their last two at the start of the second session. The verbal aggression from England seemed to dissipate after that though, although there was plenty of short stuff and stares between the fast bowlers and batters. This was especially the case when the batter in question was Jasprit Bumrah or, later, Mohammed Siraj.
Bumrah himself kept out 54 balls and the ninth wicket stand with Jadeja ended up producing 35 runs in 132 balls. When Bumrah finally fell to a tireless Stokes just before the end of the second session, India still needed only 46 to win. Jadeja and Siraj kept chipping the runs away while keeping out the England bowlers. The dismissal that broke the stand was a cruel throwback for Indian fans of a certain vintage. Those who would remember watching the epic Chennai Test between India and Pakistan in 1999 would’ve seen the uncanny similarity between how Siraj fell and Javagal Srinath’s dismissal back then – the ball coming off the top half of his bat and trickling behind to the wicket. Srinath had fallen to the offspin of Saqlain Mushtaq then, Siraj fell to off-spinner Shoaib Bashir.
Siraj was down on his haunches for what seemed like an eternity but by then, all the animosity early in the day was replaced by respect. Brook first came to give Siraj a pat on the back and this was followed by Crawley and Root consoling him once he finally managed to get to his feet. India captain Shubman Gill, whose words to Crawley at the end of Day 3 was almost the face of that heated phase of play, acknowledged the respect both sides end up having for each other after a match like this.
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“You have to give credit where it’s due… The kind of efforts his (Stokes’) team put in was commendable,” said Gill in the post-match press conference. “You give everything and there are going to be moments when a lot of heat and emotions from both sides. But at the end of the day after a test match like this, there is always admiration from both sides.”
