India chronicled a remarkable victory over England at the Oval as they ran amok on the fifth day with a couple of superlative sessions that broke the spine of the English batting. As the hosts started the day with 78 for no loss and another 291 runs to win, it was Shardul Thakur who opened the flood gates for India.
An act of blitzkrieg from Mayank Agarwal got rid of an in-form Dawid Malan for cheap while what followed thereafter was absolutely mythic. Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja tore down through the English middle-order that left England wobbling in a span of six runs.
Jadeja started the apocalypse with a brilliant delivery that foxed Haseeb Hameed and kissed timbre. The next man to depart was Ollie Pope as Bumrah broke Kapil Dev’s record with a searing delivery that barreled through the defences of Ollie Pope and hammered the off and the middle-stump.
Bumrah came up with another peach that claimed Jonny Bairstow and it was a picture-perfect toe-crushing yorker. Hurtling at 145 plus clicks, Bumrah razed through Bairstow’s shield. Jadeja struck in quick succession again as he removed Moeen Ali with a very soft dismissal with Suryakumar Yadav completing the catch.
Joe Root and Chris Woakes came together for a brief period of resistance but it didn’t last long as Shardul Thakur came up with a brilliant delivery to claim the big wicket of Joe Root who played onto his own stumps.
Umesh Yadav moped up the tail in no time as he removed Chris Woakes, Craig Overton and James Anderson to send the Indian crowd into raptures.
From ICC to Indian celebrities, everyone celebrated this historic victory by India in the grandest fashions. Twitter deluged with congratulatory messages. Talking about celebrities, actor Suniel Shetty took to Twitter and posted, “The better man/team always wins on their day. Wins & losses are part of sportsmanship. So let’s zip the trolling & cheer the #BoysInBlue. Proud Indians win hearts too. That’s what I call making music friends. Cheers #TeamIndia #INDvENG.”
The better man/team always wins on their day. Wins & losses are part of sportsmanship. So let’s zip the trolling & cheer the #BoysInBlue. Proud Indians win hearts too. That’s what I call making music friends. Cheers #TeamIndia #INDvENG pic.twitter.com/hhp5OYqYzc
— Suniel Shetty (@SunielVShetty) September 6, 2021
