The second Test between England and India at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London gathered global attention as it was a thrilling encounter that went down to the wire. Not often, Test matches produce such high-voltage drama and entertainment. The momentum kept on shuffling throughout the game as both teams gave their best to keep fans on the edge of the seats.
Eventually, Team India registered the victory by a massive margin of 151 runs in the final hour of Day 5. Many moments in the match captured the eyeballs. But, one of the most talked-about incidents took place on the third day, between Indian speedster Jasprit Bumrah and veteran English paceman James Anderson.
It all happened when Bumrah bowled a 10-ball over to Anderson as he delivered four no-balls. During that over, the Ahmedabad-born bowled back-to-back bouncers to Anderson. However, the Lancashire cricketer seemed to be upset as he got involved in a heated exchange with the Indian pacer.
Though Anderson got out in the next over, but the drama and heat of this incident exaggerated on the next two days with individuals from both teams being involved in the war of words. But why Anderson was unhappy and what he exactly said to Bumrah was not revealed.
After the end of the second Test, Indian fielding coach R Sridhar described the whole story during a chat with off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube show ‘Kutti Story’.
Sridhar disclosed that after the over, Bumrah had gone to Anderson to end the matter and let him know those bumpers were unintentional. The fielding coach said the English bowler brushed aside Bumrah, stating he deliberately bowled those quicker deliveries.
“So after the innings, the boys were walking back to the dressing room. Then, Bumrah walked past Jimmy and just patted at 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. Brushing him aside, he has told him, ‘You bowl only 85MPH to the other batters; you are bowling 90MPH to me. This is cheating. I won’t accept,'” added Sridhar.
