Mohammed Siraj and his spell of dreams
Nothing much here really, other than a bit of talk about Mohammed Siraj's world class spell and some emotions about him
It was going to be only a matter of time before Kohli turned to his lethal spin duo with the bite on the Wankhede track. Add to that the opposition spinner being the only one to take wickets in the previous innings, Siraj would have known this was going to be a quick turnaround.
Mohammed Siraj decided to bowl his heart out and it was truly fascinating viewing. One that got me jumping in my room at 7 am on a Saturday morning, yeah it was that good.
4 overs. 19 runs. 3 wickets. He ran in every single ball of that spell (almost yeah), you could feel the energy in his legs from the TV screens (At least I could). He would have probably been told he was going to get a short spell by his skipper and that would have given him the assurance to go full throttle and oh boy didn't he do it well.
Took the first over for the settling in a bit did Siraj, a boundary and a single, and just got the engines ready for take-off before action unrolled from the second over. Will Young who showed promise in defense on Kanpur was up against a quality pace bowler this time, Siraj ran in, hit the just short of good length mark in the fourth stump channel. Angled in with his natural angle, held the line took the edge, and a good low catch from the captain Kohli. A beauty and one down, New Zealand.
The second one was a bit of partnership with his captain, pretty evident from the celebrations after it panned out. Kohli was seen adjusting the position of the deep square leg fielder( Shreyas Iyer) just before that delivery. Latham was surprised, a touch caught unaware with this rising short delivery and he took on the pull shot and you can guess how the story panned out then. Siraj roaring in the air, Iyer at the deep pointing at his skipper as if to say you told it and Siraj get two in an over and energy flowing through every bit of his body (Come on, you all can feel it now too).
The last one was the icing on the top to do justice to that spell because it really deserved something like that and Siraj couldn't have asked for anything more majestic. One that fits in his iconic image collections when he looks back at his career.
Angles in, seams away late by a very good margin and hits the top of Taylor's off pole and he could do absolutely nothing about that. I mean, what can you do about that. One that reminded us about the Pat Cummins delivery to Joe Root, yeah this looked like Siraj's version of it.
"Oh my word what a delivery that is, This is Mohammed Siraj, this is India at absolutely at their best" yeah I remember the commentary of course, who wouldn't.
Nothing much just felt very happy and a lot of pride for how much this Siraj lad has achieved in his short Test career so far. Runs in with all his heart every time he gets the ball, infectious energy, and a bloke I'm very happy for personally. I mean we all are, aren’t we? Just keep giving us these spells Siraj, the sky is the limit for you superstar. Your Abbu would be proud of you!