England off-spinner Shoaib Bashir who broke Indian hearts at the Lord’s Test when he ended Mohammed Siraj’s 30-ball resistance, helping the hosts to a tight 22-run win, recently opened up about the delivery that did the India pacer in and the scenes that unfolded thereafter.
Siraj played the delivery down onto the pitch in front of the crease but it spun back and rattled the base of his leg stump which led to England’s win with the hosts taking a 2-1 lead in the 5-match Test series. The seamer, who was the last man to be dismissed, looked devastated and he sunk down on his knees. If Siraj had survived, India might have pulled off a miracle of epic proportions courtesy of allrounder Ravindra Jadeja who stayed unbeaten at 61.
“We were creating chances, but just couldn’t get that wicket. I really wanted to get out there. Stokesy knew and gave me the go-ahead when he was on the field and I was on the bench. My left hand felt pretty good when I was bowling. I’m just glad I could make a difference. We got Joe Root to come into silly point to put pressure on Siraj, and I just tried to put as many revs on that ball as I could. Luckily it popped from a length and when it hit his bat (and down into the ground), everyone was just looking, ‘Where is it?’,” Bashir said to The Sunday Times.
“From my angle I couldn’t really see (the bail coming off). My reaction was off a lot of other peoples’ reaction. I was just relieved. That feeling will stay with me forever — at the home of cricket in front of a packed crowd. It doesn’t get better,” he added.
On his injury
That was Bashir’s last match of the series with the bowler missing the next 2 Tests due to an injury to his no bowling hand. He later underwent surgery, with two pins inserted in his finger as he’s still awaiting clearance five weeks on.
He also talked about how he batted through he pain at Lord’s and added 2 runs in 9 balls in a 7-run partnership with Jofra Archer.
“It (the injury) happened, I came off the field and went for a scan,” he recalled. “I knew it was pretty bad at that point, but I had plenty of pain-killers. There was no real conversation about me batting. My first ball from (Jasprit) Bumrah was a bouncer and the next ball a yorker, and it was one of those where the vibrations went right up through your hands. But I was always going to bat, even if it was only to add five-to-ten runs. In the grand scheme of things, they might matter,” he said.
The post‘From my angle I couldn’t really see’: Shoaib Bashir opens up about match-winning delivery that dismissed Mohammed Siraj at Lord’s | Cricket News appeared first on Indian Express
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