Jasprit Bumrah Shines With 5 Wickets, Sachin Tendulkar Highlights Dropped Catches
Team India's fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah gave another brilliant performance in the Test match against England, taking 5 wickets, but due to poor fielding and a bit of bad luck, he could not take more wickets. After his tremendous spell, cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar also praised Bumrah and said that if there were no no-balls and three dropped catches, he could have taken up to 9 wickets.
Sachin wrote on Twitter,
"Congratulations, Bumrah! One no-ball and three missed catches prevented you from taking 9 wickets."
Indeed, Bumrah single-handedly bundled out the entire England team for 465 runs and gave India a slight lead of 6 runs. During the match, Yashasvi Jaiswal dropped three important catches off Bumrah's balls—of Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, and Harry Brook. Not only this, Bumrah had also dismissed Brook once for zero, but it turned out to be a no-ball, which saved Brook.
Nevertheless, Bumrah took 5 wickets in 24.4 overs, conceding 83 runs, and had an economy rate of 3.36. This was Bumrah's 10th five-wicket haul in SENA countries (South Africa, England, New Zealand, and Australia), the most by any Indian bowler. If he takes two more five-wicket hauls, he will also surpass Pakistan legend Wasim Akram (11 SENA fifers). Bumrah has so far taken 5-wicket hauls 12 times in his career abroad, equalling former captain Kapil Dev's record. The difference is that Bumrah achieved this feat in just 34 Tests, while Kapil Dev had to play 66 Tests for this. The special thing is that only two of Bumrah's five-wicket hauls have come in India; the rest are all abroad.
Talking about England's innings, they started the second session at 327/5. Harry Brook (99 runs, 112 balls, 11 fours, and 2 sixes) batted strongly but missed out on a century. Jamie Smith (40), Chris Woakes (38), and Brydon Carse (22) also made important contributions. Prasidh Krishna took 3 wickets, but he also conceded 128 runs. India won the toss on the first day and was invited to bat. The team had a strong start—Yashasvi Jaiswal scored 101 runs, captain Shubman Gill scored 147 runs, and wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant played a brilliant innings of 134 runs. India was at 430/4 at one time, but Ben Stokes (4/66) and Josh Tongue (4/86) shocked the middle and lower order.
In this match, Bumrah proved why he is India's most reliable bowler. Now everyone's eyes are on whether he will be able to lead the team to victory with similar performance in the next innings.