Our Bureau
London
The fifth and final test of the Anderson Tendulkar Trophy between India and England was one for the ages. The match that kept the spectators on the edge of their seats and those who were watching from their homes glued to their screens. However, one person that had the best seat in the world was former Sri Lankan cricketer and umpire Kumar Dharmasena.
When Indian pacer Mohammed Siraj came in sprinting hard to dismiss Gus Atkinson on a beautiful delivery, every Indian fan must have yelled their hearts out in joy. Dharmasena, who was the umpire in the match, was standing right at the stumps watching Atkinson getting bowled by a beautiful delivery and India drawing the iconic series 2-2.
Dharmasena put up a picture of the whole play on his official instagram handle and in the caption he stated how lucky he feels to witness the iconic moment. He wrote, “So lucky to witness this ball from the best seat in the house.”
This English tour will go down as one of the highlights of Siraj’s career. He finished as the leading wicket-taker of the series with 23 scalps to his name. He bowled his heart out in the series and ended with the most number of overs bowled in the series (185 overs) and became the only pacer to bowl in all the innings of all 5 tests.
The “Miyan Magic” ran wild as the Indian pacer led a young Indian pace attack whenever Jasprit Bumrah had to miss out on a test due to workload management. He picked up 9 wickets in the final test and his fiery spell in the 1st session of Day 5 of the Oval test was the reason why they were able to win the test and save the series. And for these heroics efforts he was awarded the Man of the Match award.
