England head coach Chris Silverwood said emotions were running high in the England dressing room after Indian pacers targeted James Anderson during England’s second innings on Day 4 of the recently-concluded Lord’s Test. The England tail-ender was made to face some chin music by Indian speedster Jasprit Bumrah, who bowled a barrage of short balls and bouncers against him.
Silverwood said Indian pacers targeting Anderson led to the England fast bowlers giving a hostile reception to the Indian tail-enders on Day 5 of the Test match. The likes of Bumrah and Mohammed Shami had to deal with pace and bounce from Mark Wood, Ollie Robinson, and others.
Tempers flared in the middle as Bumrah was also seen exchanging a few words with Wood and Jos Buttler among others. Indian skipper Virat Kohli was also seen fired up in the Lord’s balcony as he cheered for his tail-enders, who put on a show with the bat. Silverwood said England wanted to come back hard at India after they targeted Anderson.
“Emotions ran high, there’s no doubt about it. I mean, obviously, they targeted Jimmy (Anderson) in that first innings. And we went back hard at them as well, we tried to go toe-to-toe with them. The one thing I will say is that the competition was created with what happened to him. We put a lot of fire in our belly for Day 4 as well,” Silverwood was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
However, the move to target the Indian tail-enders backfired for England as Shami and Bumrah added an unbeaten stand of 89 runs for the ninth wicket and propelled India’s score to 298/8 (declared) at Lunch on Day 5. While Shami remained unbeaten on 56, Bumrah notched up 34 not out. Silverwood admitted England bowlers went overboard against the Indian tail-enders and lost the plot.
“I thought for a lot of Day 4, the way we stuck at our task, was absolutely fantastic with the ball. So you know I mean, we can use that fuel to real positive intent as well. And maybe it just got away a little bit with us, obviously, when the lower order was in but we’ll learn from that,” said the England coach.
India registered a thumping 151-run win over England at Lord’s after bundling the hosts for a paltry 120 in their 272-run chase to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
