Jasprit Bumrah’s fiery spell to James Anderson on Day 3 of the Lord’s Test did not go down well with the latter as he accused the Indian of cheating, according to Ravichandran Ashwin.
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Ashwin, who was reliving the Lord’s victory with India’s fielding coach R Sridhar on his YouTube channel, touched upon the heated exchange between Bumrah and Anderson during the game that fired both sides up. Bumrah was unrelenting in his 10-ball over to Anderson during England’s second innings, where he unleashed a number of bouncers at the 39-year-old.
Following the incident, talks on fast bowlers bowling bouncers to tail-enders did the rounds, but Sridhar defended Bumrah, who stated that he had done nothing wrong. “Previously there was this unwritten rule amongst fast bowlers. While one is bowling to the other, you shall not bowl bouncers, beamers and extremely quick deliveries. Bowl full ones and get him out: that was the understanding. That club is gone now.”
“Now if you bat, I’ll bowl fast at you. If you can, you do too mate! That is the kind of attitude now.”
Ashwin went on to give a detailed summary of the particular moment that irked Anderson. “The thing was, Jimmy was like, “Hey mate! Why are you bowling so fast? Am I doing the same to you?” The beauty about that is, Jimmy had told Boom, “All these while, you were bowling in the 80mph, suddenly, on seeing me, why are you bowling 90mph?”
“After the innings, the boys were walking back to the dressing room. Then Bumrah walked past Jimmy and just patted him so as to tell him that it wasn’t intentional,” said Sridhar. “We all know Bumrah. He is such a nice guy. So he had gone to talk to him and end the matter, but Jimmy brushed him aside.”
“Same way he had brushed Jadeja aside in 2014,” added Ashwin.
“Brushing him aside, he also told him, ‘You bowled only 85mph to the other batters, but you bowled 90mph to me. This is cheating. I won’t accept’ along with a few other words that can’t be disclosed here”.
Sridhar admits that it was the trigger that the team needed to go for the kill in the game. “It got the team together. Not that the team wasn’t together before that. The incident just ignited a fire in everyone, and the effect was visible on day 5.”
Bumrah along with Shami stitched together a memorable unbeaten 89-run stand, which allowed India to post 298-8 declared on the board, setting England a target of 272 runs. The bowlers needed just under 52 overs to skittle England for 120, as they won the game by 151 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
