London [UK], August 4 : Mohammed Siraj broke the silence about his costly fielding blunder, which gave an unprecedented lifeline to Harry Brook on Day 4 of the final Test against England. Despite the catastrophic "game-changing" moment, Siraj revealed that he woke up with a sense of belief in himself to finish the job for the team, which he eventually did.
On the fourth day at The Oval, Brook and Joe Root started to threaten India's dominance by orchestrating a fierce riposte in their pursuit of a 374-run target. Prasidh Krishna offered a way out for India to avoid the misery that Brook was capable of unleashing while relying on his skillset.
Brook top-edged his pull the first delivery of the 35th over, and Prasidh started celebrating as soon as the ball shot sky high. Siraj arrived at the landing position and completed the catch. However, to his and India's agony, he took a step back and touched the boundary rope, turning the wicket-taking delivery into a maximum.
He sunk his face in his hands, trying to fathom the gravity of his mistake. After being dropped on 19, Brook made the most of the second wind and blazed his way to a swashbuckling 111 from 98 deliveries before he ballooned the ball to Siraj off Akash Deep. In the second instance, Siraj didn't allow history to repeat itself and pouched the ball safely.
"To be honest, I didn't think that I would take the (Brook) catch and step on the rope. It was a match-changing moment. Yes, I always believed myself that I will do it for the team," Siraj said while speaking to Sky Sports after the match.
"If I had taken that (Brook) catch properly, probably we may not have had to come today. But Brook played really well," he continued during the post-match presentation.
After the end of a 195-run partnership, 'Miyaan Magic' brought the thunder down on the ground in London and delivered a performance that will be remembered for ages. While sticking to his plan of hitting the right areas, Siraj always had faith in himself. He even took a screenshot from the internet, which suggested 'to believe', spurring him to bring it out on the field.
"To be honest, it is so amazing. From day one to here, everyone fought so hard, so we are very happy. I just wanted to make sure I hit the right areas, the wickets would fall, and anything else would be a bonus. When I woke up, I believed I could do it. I took a screenshot of something on Google that said believe because I wanted to put it out there today," Siraj said in the post-match presentation, after being adjudged the Player of the Match.
After rain forced a premature end to the action on the fourth day, India stood four wickets to level the series while England just had to pile up 35 runs to gun down the daunting total. In the opening hour, Siraj breathed fire, bowled in tandem with Prasidh, and put the final nail in the coffin.
On his 1,113th delivery of the series, he nailed the yorker and rattled the timber to get India past the finishing line with a narrow six-run triumph, finishing with a sizzling five-for in the second innings and overall match figures 9/190.
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