Birmingham: Rain forced early lunch on day two of the rescheduled fifth Test between England and India at Edgbaston on Saturday after the visitors grabbed control of the match, making 416 in 84.5 overs in the first innings before captain Jasprit Bumrah took out Alex Lees to leave England at 16/1 in three overs.
The tourists looked in trouble at 98/5. But Rishabh Pant’s marvellous 146 had given India an upper hand on Friday. On Saturday, it was Ravindra Jadeja’s turn to reach his third Test century in a knock where he started on an attacking note but dropped anchor as Pant became the aggressor. Bumrah then hit a crucial 16-ball 31, including taking pacer Stuart Broad for 35 runs in an over, claiming the record for the most expensive over in Test cricket.
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. Mohammed Shami kickstarted the day with back-to-back boundaries off short balls from Matthew Potts — a pull-through deep mid-wicket was followed by a crisp cut-through point.
As England tried to get a breakthrough with short-pitched stuff, Shami and Jadeja took a boundary each off Ben Stokes. Jadeja had a slice of luck at 92 when Zak Crawley and Joe Root had a crack at catching his outer edge in the slip cordon, but none got close to it, denying Potts his third wicket.
On the very next ball, Jadeja played a cracking cut to reach a splendid century. After Shami fell while trying to ramp Stuart Broad over the third man, Jadeja was bowled by James Anderson while going for the slog, with England’s chances of keeping India under 400 looking bright.
But what followed next was something no one had even thought of. Bumrah pulled the first ball from Stuart Broad in the 84th over for a boundary. It was a top-edge that Crawley very nearly got to, but it evaded him and bounced over the rope. Broad again dug it short and it went high over wicketkeeper Sam Billings’ head for five wides.
More agony followed for Broad as Bumrah bludgeoned a full toss over mid-on for another boundary and then got an inside edge to fine leg for another boundary. Bumrah fell while trying to swat Broad over deep square leg, but the ball sailed comfortably for the fourth boundary of the over.
Broad bowled another short ball and Bumrah pulled brilliantly over fine leg for six, giving him the world record for scoring the most runs in an over of Test cricket — 35, with 29 being the legal runs, surpassing the record previously held by Brian Lara, George Bailey and Keshav Maharaj at 28. In the next over, Anderson ended India’s innings by having Mohammed Siraj caught at mid-off, earning a five-wicket haul for the 32nd time in Test cricket.
In reply, Lees and Crawley took a boundary off Shami and Bumrah respectively. But Bumrah got one to come in and brush past the inside edge of Lees to bowl him through the gate before the rain came and caused an early end of a session thoroughly dominated by India.
Brief scores: India 416 in 84.5 overs (Rishabh Pant 146, Ravindra Jadeja 104; James Anderson 5/60, Matthew Potts 2/105) lead England 16/1 in three overs (Jasprit Bumrah 1/11) by 400 runs
(IANS)
