With Shubman Gill’s leading India to a six-run win over England on the final day of the Oval Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy to level the series 2-2, it was a lion-hearted effort by Indian pacer Mohammed Siraj in the match that helped India eke out a historic win. Siraj, who took five wickets in the second innings, including the last wicket of Gus Atkinson to hand India their closest win by runs in Test cricket history, finished the series with a total of 23 wickets at an average of 32.43.
With England needing 35 runs at the start of the day’s play with four wickets in hand, Siraj took the wickets of Jamie Smith, Jamie Overton, and Gus Atkinson, apart from Prasidh Krishna, who removed Josh Tongue. The Hyderabad pacer shared how he has always believed that he can win matches from whatever situation.
“Yes, I have always believed in myself and my bowling and in the belief that I can win matches from whatever the situation is. My belief was to win the match for India,” Siraj told Sony Sports.
On Sunday, Siraj had dropped Harry Brook off the bowling of Krishna with England placed at 137 for 3, and the drop resulted in a six. Brook and Root added another 164 runs before Brook was caught by Siraj off the bowling of Akash Deep. Indian pacers then pulled things back for India in the last one hour of the day’s play. Siraj, who removed Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope on Sunday to keep India in the hunt, also talked about the thoughts in his mind after dropping Brook’s catch.
“To be honest, I never thought that the attempted catch would go for a six. It was a match-changing moment, as we all saw how Harry Brook batted in T20 mode. I thought the match had gone out of our hands at that moment, but then it wasn’t to be,” shared Siraj.
With bad light stopping play on Sunday with England needing 35 runs to take a 3-1 lead in the series, Monday also saw an overcast sky at the start of play. With Siraj first removing Jamie Smith in the second over of the day, followed by dismissing Jamie Overton in his next over, England needed 20 runs to win with two wickets in hand. Krishna removed Josh Tongue two overs later, with England still needing 16 runs to win with Atkinson and an injured Chris Woakes at the crease. Siraj then removed Atkinson off the first ball of the 86th over to hand India a memorable win.
Siraj later talked about his belief in securing the win for India.
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“To be honest, from day one to now, we had the belief that everyone has to fight hard. Our plan was simple, to bowl in consistent areas and try hard. When I woke up in the morning, I set an image of belief from Google and set it as my phone wallpaper. And belief has made us win,” shared Siraj.
