India ended the day on a high note after setting England a big target to chase
Say the word ‘Cristiano Ronaldo’ ask any fan of his tell you what image comes to mind. Nine out of 10 times, it would be the Portuguese superstar doing a skill called ‘Step-over’ which involves feigning a move to one side and moving the football in the opposite direction.
Mohammed Siraj, Ronaldo’s most ardent fan in international cricket, has learned to do his own version of the step-over on the cricket field in the final over of the fifth Test against England.
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With two balls remaining on the third day of the Oval Test, Siraj asked captain Shubman Gill to move one of the fielders inside the circle to the deep square leg boundary.
This created an anticipation in Crawley’s mind that the Indians had laid the trap for him by bowling a bouncer, forcing him to pull it to the man on the boundary.
But it was the perfect dummy Siraj and Gill sold to Crawley as the next ball was a ripping yorker that snuck under the opener’s bat and rattled the off-stump.
Like any of his big wickets, Siraj pulled out Ronaldo’s ‘SIUUU’ celebration before the visitors walked off the field in smiles.
Even though the wicket was a result of Siraj and Gill’s tactical acumen, there were massive contributions from Yashasvi Jaiswal, Akash Deep, Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja that helped India keep the pressure on England’s openers
India needed a target upwards of 350 to stay in the game on a pitch that still had few grass patches left and was seaming wildly under a cloud cover.
Jaiswal ended the day with a half-century with night watcher Akash Deep for company, but got to his hundred after being dropped four times by the England fielders.
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A surprising attacking fifty from Deep along with Jadeja getting to his sixth fifty-plus score of the series and a late blitz of 53 off 46 balls from Washington pushed India’s lead to 373.
Gill made all the efforts count by shutting out Duckett and Crawley’s scoring areas, which built pressure on them to take the unusual route to the boundary.
Prasidh Krishna (0-23 from 5 overs) and Deep (0-15 from 5 overs) bowled according to the plan for Siraj to come in for his first spell and get Crawley’s wicket.
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