Siraj and Shami star as India beat England, draw first blood

Gulf Today Report

Mohammad Siraj produced a scintillating bowling performance after Mohammad Shami scored a fighting fifty to steer India to a thumping 151-run victory against England at Lord’s.

India set up England an achievable target of 272, but the host faltered in the chase and were bowled out for a paltry 120 at their home turf.

Siraj, who returned with a figure of 4-32, swung into action and got rid of the other opener Dom Sibley after Jasprit Bumrah, who also picked up three wickets, triggered the skid by dismissing the opener Rory Burns for a nought to give India a dream start.

Haseeb Ahmed and Joe Root took the score to 44 before Ishant Sharma trapped the former in front of wickets to make it 45-3.

The onus of taking England to safety fell on the shoulder of Root and Jonny Bairstow. But the wicketkeeper batsman could not survive for long and fell prey to Ishant for two.

England needed a partnership to take them through to the end of the day in order to salvage a draw and their hopes were resting on Root, who scored 180 in the first innings.

Root too failed to create the same magic and was caught by his Indian counter-part at slip off the bowling of Bumrah, which left England reeling.

Root’s dismissal opened the floodgates as Siraj ripped through the middle order as England ended up for 120.

Earlier, Shami smashed a gritty fifty and shared an 89-run stand with Bumrah for the ninth wicket to give enough runs on the board to defend before Kohli declared the innings.

Shami's knock was studded with six fours and one six.