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What's the story?
After the introduction of the new ball after 80 overs, Jasprit Bumrah put India in a position of complete dominance with three wickets - Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, and Chris Woakes - in two overs. Bumrah almost got his fifth wicket of the innings in the form of Adil Rashid in the very next over.
Virat Kohli caught the ball which came off the edge of Rashid's bat in the 87th over but thanks to a no-ball from Bumrah, Rashid helped England to take the game to the fifth day. Due to the missed chance, Bumrah had to wait for 10 more overs for his fifth wicket but him bowling no-balls on a regular basis is definitely a cause of concern for the team.
In case you didn't know
Bumrah has a history with no-balls even in limited overs cricket. The most famous no-ball incident is from the finale of 2017 ICC Champions Trophy in England. In the fourth over of the match, Pakistan's opener Fakhar Zaman edged one to the wicketkeeper MS Dhoni but the southpaw was saved by Jasprit Bumrah's no-ball.
After getting a reprieve at 3, Fakhar Zaman went onto score a match-winning 111 off 106 balls. The century by the man of the match helped Pakistan post a target of 339 in front of the Indian batsmen, who could manage only 158 runs and lost the match by 180 runs.
The heart of the matter
In a must-win game, the entire Indian team has stepped up their game and need just one wicket to win the game on the final day of play. With the captain leading from the front, the Indian batsmen set a target of 521 in front of the home team. A major chunk of the credit must also go the Indian bowlers for restricting England to jsut 161 in the first innings.
In England's second innings, Indian bowlers got a great start on Day 4 as they picked up four wickets in the first session. In the second session, Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes did not allow any more wickets to fall. While Buttler notched up his first Test hundred in his career, Stokes ably aided the wicketkeeper-batsman with a 62. The two batsmen put together 159 runs for the fifth wicket before they ran into Jasprit Bumrah with the new ball.
After the introduction of the new ball, India picked up five wickets - four for Bumrah and one for Hardik Pandya. Even though Bumrah missed the chance of taking Rashid's wicket, he covered it up with that of Stuart Broad to bring about his first five-fer in England.
Final say
The question that arises in the mind of a follower of the game is that - What would have happened if Bumrah did not bowl the no-ball? Maybe, the match would have ended on Day 4 itself. Right now India have 210 runs to defend for the last wicket but what would have been the case if the runs required were just 10 instead of 210. Things would have become tricky and the no-ball could have cost India the game.
A no-ball is a part and parcel of the game but the reccurence of it by the same bowler is definitely not welcome at the highest level. If Bumrah doesn't correct the issue soon it might cost India a match or two more - just like last year's finale. So let us hope that Bumrah will resolve the issue as soon as possible.
Twitter reactions
While the no-ball did not cost India much, Twitter had a field day discussing Bumrah's no ball. Here a few reactions to the wicket off the no-ball:
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