IND vs ENG: James Anderson Shows Sympathy For Stuart Broad After Jasprit Bumrah’s Heroics
Birmingham: England pacer James Anderson showed some sympathy for Stuart Broad after his fellow veteran conceded a world record 35 runs in one over on Saturday.
Stand-in India skipper Jasprit Bumrah took a liking to Broad’s consistent short of a length bowling at Edgbaston as he smashed two sixes and four boundaries during the six-ball onslaught.
Five wides and a scampered single from the final ball of the over saw Broad concede an astonishing 35 runs, some seven runs more than the previous record that was held jointly by three players.
Anderson was one of the three bowlers that had previously conceded 28 runs in an over – Australia’s George Bailey flayed him to all parts of the WACA Ground in Perth in 2013 – and the England veteran said Broad was a tad unlucky during Bumrah’s frantic hitting spree.
“On another day one of those top edges goes straight to hand. If that gets taken nobody talks about the over,” Anderson noted.
He added, “I thought it was pretty unlucky. There’s plenty of top edges, a couple of good shots but that’s the plan (captain) Ben (Stokes) wanted Broady to go with.Broady stuck to it and on another day when the luck was with Stuart an edge probably would have gone to hand.”
Bumrah’s heroics with the bat – along with centuries to Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja – have India well placed at stumps on day two of the rescheduled fifth Test, with England slumping to 84/5 at the end of the day following an inspired spell of fast bowling from the visitors.
Bumrah did the majority of the damage with three wickets, but Mohammed Siraj got the valuable scalp of Joe Root and Mohammed Shami bowled well with the new ball.
The one saving grace for England is that in-form duo Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow are the not out batters overnight and Anderson believes the pair will take the attack to India’s dangerous seamers when play resumes on Sunday.
Anderson said, “I’ve got a fair feeling our best line of defence will be attack. The way we’ve got ourselves out of sticky situations in the last few weeks has been by trying to put pressure back on the opposition, and I don’t see this being any different. We want to score, we want to move the game forward, and that’s what we’ll try and do.”
(ICC)