NEW DELHI: The fourth day of the Boxing Day Test in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy witnessed a captivating battle between bat and ball at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj delivered standout performances as India fought to contain a resilient Australian side, which extended its lead to 333 runs by stumps.
Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar, speaking on Star Sports, heaped praise on the Indian seamers. Manjrekar even compared Bumrah’s genius to legendary bowlers like Malcolm Marshall and Curtly Ambrose.
“There’s just no weakness this man has. It’s almost like he is this genie that Indian cricket have brought as a gift and you make a wish and you get it. And it’s always Bumrah providing it, be it T20 cricket World Cup or 50 over World Cup, or it’s a match like this, crucial game on a page where a lot of the bowlers struggle to get anything out of it. He was getting lateral movement,” Manjrekar said.
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“He’s cleaned up Alex Carey, as if, he’s a number 10, 11 batter. He just had two balls in that spell left. You knew he wasn’t going to bowl more than two balls, and he nailed Alex Carey there as well. And when you look at the average, I mean, this is unbelievable. We talk about Curtly Ambrose. I had the privilege of playing against Malcolm Marshall. Now those are great names, and an average of under 20 after 200 wickets is just mind-boggling stuff from Jasprit Bumrah.”
Manjrekar also lauded Mohammed Siraj for rising to the occasion.
“The fact of the matter is Mohammed Siraj realised that he had to put in his best show. So what he did basically was just ran in with a lot more energy, just put in a lot more effort. And sometimes that’s all you need. And it was evident when we saw the speed gun, he was four or five kilometers quicker,” he noted.
“There were a couple of balls over that were touching 140. In the first innings, it was maybe 134, 135. So sometimes it’s just about bending your back and forget about all the other issues. And that’s what he did. And he was desperate for success. And sometimes when you push against the wall, and we’ve seen that with Mohammed Siraj, he comes up with the goods.”
Jasprit Bumrah’s 4/56—including his 200th Test wicket—was the highlight of the day. He dismantled Australia’s middle order with clinical precision, removing Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, and Alex Carey in quick succession.
Mohammed Siraj, with figures of 3/66, also played a crucial role in triggering a dramatic Australian collapse after lunch. His dismissal of Steve Smith for 13 set the tone for a spell that saw Australia plummet to 91/6. Despite these setbacks, Australia showed grit, with contributions from Pat Cummins (41) and an unbeaten 55-run partnership between Nathan Lyon (41 not out) and Scott Boland (10 not out).
