Mohammed Siraj gave another strong performance as he led India’s bowling in the fifth Test against England at The Oval. On the final day, August 4, he took two early wickets—Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton—in his first two overs of the day.
Siraj leads with most four-wicket hauls in England
Siraj got Smith caught behind by Dhruv Jurel, and later trapped Overton lbw. The Overton wicket came in the 80th over, and it gave Siraj his fourth wicket in the second innings. This became his seventh four-wicket haul in Test matches played in England.
No other Asian bowler has taken seven four-wicket hauls in England before. Muttiah Muralitharan from Sri Lanka and Waqar Younis from Pakistan are now second with six each.
Siraj shines with red-ball in both innings
In the first innings of this same Test, Siraj had taken four wickets too. He gave away 86 runs in 16.2 overs. His bowling has been sharp and steady all through the match.
Siraj had started his second innings well by dismissing Zak Crawley for 14 on August 2. On August 3, he bowled England’s stand-in captain Ollie Pope, who scored 27 runs from 34 balls.
Top Indian bowler with most four-wicket hauls in England
Siraj now holds the Indian record for most four-wicket hauls in Test matches in England. He has taken 7 such hauls in 11 matches. Jasprit Bumrah is next with five, and Ishant Sharma has four. Many legends like Kapil Dev, Zaheer Khan and Mohammad Shami have only three each.
Other names with two hauls include Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ravindra Jadeja, Praveen Kumar and Bishan Singh Bedi. But Siraj is ahead of everyone now in this list.
Siraj becomes top wicket-taker of the series
The four wickets Siraj took in this second innings took his total in the series to 22 wickets from five matches. These have come across nine innings. With this, he is now the highest wicket-taker in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
Josh Tongue of England is second, with 19 wickets from only three matches. Siraj’s performance has been one of the best for India in recent years in red-ball cricket in England.
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