Lam Seneviratne … in Colombo, July 2025… “Was Siraj blameless”
The last ball of the Lords Cricket Test match was not just Siraj getting bowled and England winning the match, it was a prolonged gripping drama stranger than fiction. Siraj was not required to score runs, but just defend his wicket which he had done assuredly for 12 overs.
He now faced the gentle slow right arm off spin of Shoaib Bashir who had a broken finger in his left hand. This ball pitched outside his off stump and Siraj faced it with a defensive bat. The ball did not crash through his defence and bowl him. The spin did not beat his bat and hit his pad for an LBW. Siraj played a straight bat which met the ball and dropped it in front of him, so no catch. He felt safe that he had defended another ball and there was nothing more to do. However, the ball on the ground in front of him was not dead. The spin on the ball made it move back and Siraj watched its slow progress with some interest or was he [so] transfixed or mesmerised that he did not use his bat or boot to knock it away. He was peering at the ball all the way from in front of him, past his boots and gently onto the leg stump, just hard enough to drop left bail to the ground. It was only after the England players ran forward shouting and jumping for joy did Siraj realise that he was bowled, out, match over, match lost. Was Siraj blameless? No, he was ball watching and bowled.
Pity that the cameras did not show us the scene at the other end, to see the reactions and emotions of Jadeja, the would-be hero in this drama.
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