ENG vs IND | Twitter laments as disbalanced Siraj turns villain to save Brook and embarrass Krishna

The chaos often takes care of itself in such scenarios, as Mohammed Siraj showed at The Oval on Sunday.‌England lost two wickets in the first hour of play on Day 4 of the fifth Test at The Oval to leave India seven wickets to win with over 250 runs still in the bank. However, up against them were the two top-ranked batters in the world in Joe Root and Harry Brook and all historic evidence seemed to point at this partnership as the make-or-break for the hosts. The narrative became stronger when Brook refused to shackle up like his senior partner and began flaying any half-lose delivery that came his way, or the occassional good one for that matter. Something had to give and it did, only for Mohammed Siraj to ruin the build-up with an anti-climax.

Brook, fresh off a boundary and a commanding maximum over covers against Akash Deep, found himself lining up against Prasidh Krishna in the 35th over. The intent remained the same, which is why when the right-arm quick fired in a sharp bumper Brook instinctively hooked the Dukes away despite two men on the leg side boundary. The contact was off the top-edge and as the red cherry soared high into the London sky, Siraj at fine leg kept his eyes fixated while getting in position by the boundary before safely pouching it. Krishna was elated, as he raised both his arms to flex some muscles while staring directly at Brook. However, the bowler was left perplexed when his rival did not reciprocate with any dissapointment, until he finally decided to revert his gaze to the scene of crime.

As it turned out, Siraj was too focused on the ball to remember where the ropes were and as the Dukes nestled into his palm, the back foot brushed against the ropes to spurn all efforts made. The veteran could not believe himself as he stood on the wrong side of the boundary with the hand in one ball while the other clenched his straining forehead, knowing the wicket could have changed the match’s course. Notably, the veteran had just returned to the field after an eight-over spell was followed by a brief rest in the dessing room. Krishna himself had no option but to turn celebration into agony as the hands came screaming back to his face, with Brook’s cheeky smirk only adding to the misery. Twitterati could not be more entertained.

Oh Lord!