Team India, on Tuesday, faced a seven-wicket defeat after England overhauled the 378-run target in the rescheduled fifth Test at Edgbaston in Birmingham.
With the victory, the English side also managed to level the five-match series 2-2. Former skipper Joe Root and explosive batter Jonny Bairstow both smashed unbeaten centuries in the second innings to ensure England registered their highest successful chase in Test cricket.
After the match, India’s stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah shed light on what exactly went wrong for the tourists that led to the embarrassing defeat. Bumrah reckoned that India’s batting lapses in the second innings was the turning point in the high-voltage contest. Notably, the visitors lost their last seven wickets for just 92 to eventually get bundled out for 245 on Day 4 of the match.
“This is the beauty of Test cricket, isn’t it? Even if you have three good days, you have to keep coming in and keeping up the good performances. I think yesterday [Monday], we fell short with the bat, and we had to come back with the ball. That is the phase where we let the opposition in, and the momentum kept shifting away from us,” said Bumrah in the post-match presentation.
Bumrah also lauded England’s fighting spirit and admitted that the home team exhibited much better performance, especially in their second innings.
“Ifs and buts… if you go back, you could say in the first match if there was no rain, we could’ve won the series, but this is how the game of cricket goes. England played really well, they put us under pressure. We were even going ahead in the game, but they kept on fighting, and they played better than us in the second innings and won the game. So yeah, hard-fought series, but that’s the ideal result, isn’t it? Both teams played good cricket,” added Bumrah.
