Mohammed Siraj stood stunned at the crease at Lord’s. He had done everything right. In one of the most bizarre moments in red-ball cricket history, Siraj was dismissed by a delivery from Shoaib Bashir that seemed to rewrite the laws of physics.
Bashir, playing with a broken finger, sent down a loopy off-break that spun not once, but four times—off the pitch, off Siraj’s bat, again off the pitch, and finally onto the stumps. Siraj, batting at No.11 with 30 balls of grit, had defended it with soft hands and perfect technique. But fate had other plans.
“It was as good as a number 11 could be expected to play,” said analyst Jarrod Kimber on his Good Areas Podcast. “But the bat face just turns and angles a little bit… the ball should’ve dropped straight, but instead it spun into the gap between middle and leg.”
India lost that match by 22 runs. Siraj knelt down, in disbelief and heartbreak. “I thought the match was gone,” he later admitted. But the fire was far from out. His redemption arc was already being written.
Test Cricket.
Wow.
😍 pic.twitter.com/XGDWM1xR2H— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 14, 2025