Stuart Broad bowled the most-expensive over in Test cricket history as India’s tail wagged on the second morning of the fifth Test at Edgbaston.
The tourists added 78 to their overnight score of 338-for-seven to post a first innings total of 416 as Ravi Jadeja scored his third Test hundred and first away from home.
A remarkable 35 of those runs came off a single Broad over to India’s stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah, who, batting at No10, smashed the previous record of 28.
That had been held jointly by Australia’s George Bailey, South Africa’s Keshav Maharaj and West Indian great Brian Lara. Of that trio, only Lara scored all 28 runs off the bat, hitting South Africa’s Robin Peterson for six boundaries in one over in a 2003 Test, but Bumrah bested that mark, too, with 29 off the blade.
Bumrah then made the early breakthrough, bowling England opener Alex Lees for six, before rain intervened just three overs into England’s reply and, for the second day on the bounce, forced an early lunch. The home side were left 16-for-one, exactly 400 runs behind.
Rishabh Pant’s counter-attacking 146 on the opening day had dragged India from 98 for five into a position of strength and, as they had too often during the first four Test of this series last summer, England got their tactics badly wrong against the tail, persisting with a short-pitched barrage as the ball flew to all parts.
Mohammed Shami scored 16 before lifting Broad to Jack Leach at a fine third-man, while James Anderson bowled Jadeja for 104 shortly after taking the new ball. Jadeja’s ton had come from 183 balls and included 13 fours, though he had survived a scare on 92, when an edge flew only centimetres over the dives of Joe Root and Zak Crawley at slip.
Anderson would eventually walk off with five-fer after claiming the final wicket of Mohammed Siraj, but only after Broad’s historically bad over.
First, Bumrah hooked for four, before Broad’s bouncer flew way over Sam Billings behind the stumps to offer up five wides. Bumrah then top-edged a no-ball for six, before the batter struck three successive fours and heaved another maximum over backwards square. Scampering a single off the final delivery, Bumrah was almost run out but his dive denied the bowler even that consolation.
