Mohammed Siraj hits boiling point, resorts to classic Virat Kohli act after chances go begging off his bowling on Day 2
First came the dropped catch. At 86.3 overs, Jamie Smith edged a back-of-a-length delivery that seamed away late. The ball flew to KL Rahul at second slip at a comfortable height, but the chance went begging. Rahul reached out to his side with both hands, only to let the ball slip through his fingers. Siraj froze in disbelief, staring in agony at what should've been a straightforward dismissal.
Then came another close miss. Two overs later, Siraj nearly got Smith chopping on as a fuller delivery took the inside edge and bounced behind the batter, rolling dangerously close to the stumps. Smith, thinking it might crash into the leg stump, attempted to kick it away but missed entirely.
The ball somehow missed the stumps too.
Siraj, now visibly fed up, turned to an old-school move rooted more in hope than science: he walked up and switched the bails at the non-striker's end.
The gesture wasn't random. In cricketing circles, switching the bails is often seen as a superstition or a symbolic reset, a call to greater forces when nothing else is working. Virat Kohli previously used this move during India's 2023/24 Test series in South Africa, where he performed the act both at Centurion and Cape Town. Before that, Stuart Broad famously did it during the 2023 Ashes in a bid to spark something magical.
For Siraj, it was a last resort after chances continued to desert him. Interestingly, the bail-switching came right after Jasprit Bumrah picked up two wickets in the previous over.
Bumrah's brilliance in first session
Jasprit Bumrah wreaked havoc on English batters in the opening exchanges of Day 2, as he dismissed captain Ben Stokes, Joe Root, and Chris Woakes – with the latter two departing in successive deliveries – to put the hosts in early trouble. However, Jamie Smith, thanks to the dropped catch and luck favouring him later, helped put England back on track for the rest of the session alongside Carse, as the side went past the 300-run mark with ease.
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