India’s fast bowler Mohammed Siraj revealed that the strategy was to bowl only bouncers to Travis Head on the second day of the World Test Championship final at the Oval on Thursday. Both Shami and Siraj bowled short against Smith and Head in their respective spells.
In fact, Head took on the short ball and also got a few boundaries. However, Siraj was finally able to get rid of Travis Head with a short ball as he got the inside edge to the keeper, KS Bharat.
Head scored a magnificent knock of 163 runs to put Australia in a commanding position but it was a big wicket for India as Head was scoring at a brisk pace.
On the other hand, Mohammed Siraj returned with figures of 4-108 in his spell and played a key role in dismissing Australia for 469. Apart from getting the big wicket of Travis Head, Siraj accounted for Usman Khawaja, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon.
Mohammed Siraj said in the post-day press conference, “We decided to bowl only bouncers to Head and if we get hit from there then so be it. We stuck to it and got success. We built pressure did not give too many runs that also helped. We used bouncers yesterday [Wednesday] as well but the chances went in the gap.
“There were four-five chances off my bowling only. If we did not bowl well, Australia would have crossed 500.”
Siraj lauded Travis Head for his brilliant knock but admitted they could have bowled better lines in the first innings. Indian bowlers failed to hit the right areas consistently and Head and Smith made them pay.
“There was sticky bounce yesterday [Wednesday] morning and seam movement. Thereafter, there was not enough swing from the six-meter length and batters were having it easy. Head batted extraordinarily as well. We could have bowled with better lines.”
Siraj added there was pace and bounce in the surface but credited Head for forcing them to bowl short as the left-hander batted at his absolute best.
“There is more pace in the wicket and there is uneven bounce. We also bowled well but the way Head batted, he forced us to push our lengths back.”
India finished second day at 151-5 after their batters failed to get going and they still trail by a huge margin of 318 runs.
