AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday gave a shoutout to Indian bowler Mohammed Siraj, after India's victory in the fifth test of the Anderson-Tendulkar trophy.
“Always a winner@mdsirajofficial! As we say in Hyderabadi, poora khol diye Pasha!” Owaisi posted on X alongside a video of Siraj's celebration.
Siraj hails from Hyderabad, Telangana, while Owaisi is a Member of Parliament (MP) from the same Lok Sabha constituency.
India registered clinched a stunning victory by six runs at The Oval on Monday to win their second test and level the series.
Siraj was critical to India's win in the match, striking thrice in the period of one hour to complete the 5th five-wicket haul of his test career. The pacer, who was declared the Man of the Match in the final test, took 23 wickets in total in the five-match series.
{{/usCountry}}Siraj was critical to India's win in the match, striking thrice in the period of one hour to complete the 5th five-wicket haul of his test career. The pacer, who was declared the Man of the Match in the final test, took 23 wickets in total in the five-match series.
{{/usCountry}}His fifth wicket, which led India to victory in the test match against England, came a day after he dropped the crucial catch of Harry Brook when he was batting on 19. The English batsman went on to score a century in the match.
Reflecting on the incident, Siraj said that he thought that the match had “slipped away”. “Jab mere saath haadsa hua, I thought the match had gone and slipped away. If he had got yesterday, the match would have looked completely different. I thought about it as it was a game-changing moment, but the way we fought back was commendable,” the pacer said.
Speaking to Cheteshwar Pujara after the match, Siraj shared what he had told himself before the game. “When I woke up this morning, I said to myself, I will change the game and googled an emoji of 'believe' and put it on my wallpaper,” he said.
Siraj also revealed that his plan “was to consistently hit the line and length outside off-stump”. He said that the pressure on England might have eased if he had tried anything different. “So I focused on maintaining that consistent line and length,” he added.