While the chances of drawing the match were quite slim for India at the beginning of Day 5 of the second Test match at Lord’s, pacers Mohammad Shami and Jasprit Bumrah batted brilliantly to take the team to 298/8d as the visitors registered an amazing 151-run win.
Former Australia cricketer Shane Warne was not impressed with England’s tactics against Shami and Bumrah as the duo stitched a vital 89*-run partnership for the ninth wicket.
“They're (England cricketers) standing there scratching their heads saying, 'what went wrong?' and what went wrong was horrific tactics. They (England) had five, six, seven fielders on the fence.
The bowler is standing at the top of his mark looking around saying, 'how am I going to get some of these guys out?’ They got a bit too emotional, a bit too much short stuff and in the end, the best team won, and that was India,” Warne told SEN.
England had India by the neck as they succeeded to make inroads with the ball early on the final day to dismiss Rishabh Pant who was the last recognized batsman from the batting unit. While it was clear that the match was in the home team’s grasp, they quite lost the plot when Bumrah and Shami were at the crease.
It seemed as if instead of attacking and getting the Indian lower order out, Joe Root brought pacer Mark Wood into the attack and moved more fielders on the boundaries meaning singles were readily available to the Bumrah-Shami duo.
While Wood and English quicks peppered the tail-enders with a lot of short balls, it proved to be counterproductive according to the Aussie leg-spinner as Shami went on to get his second Test half-century with Bumrah(34) at the other end taking India’s lead to a massive 271 runs.
(With SEN Inputs)
