Amid the wild-eyed mania with which India welcomed victory over England in the Lord’s Test, it was a surprise Mohammed Siraj had the wherewithal to think.
He has just set the seal on an epic, final-hour win with a perfect delivery that clipped the top of James Anderson’s off stump, to set the party in motion.
As he charged through to celebrate with whoever could grab hold of him first, he remembered to swoop and collect a stump. Savvy move. It will be a souvenir of a triumph for the ages for India.
The bare facts were it gave the tourists a 151-run win and a 1-0 series lead. But it meant so much more than that, given the fire and brimstone of the five days leading up to it.
Siraj took four in the innings, and eight in the match. No place on the honours board, maybe, but that was offset by the fact he was a central figure in one of India’s most famous Test wins.
As was his pace colleague Jasprit Bumrah, who took three wickets as England were bowled out for 120 in just over 51 overs.
It stood to reason that Bumrah would be a central figure on the final day with the ball – but with the bat? Few saw that coming, even if his appearance at the crease was eagerly awaited.
There was a reason for that. Bumrah had invoked the ire of the home players with a series of fierce bouncers to Anderson in a 10-ball over at the end of England’s first innings.
When he got his turn to bat, England were intent on getting in to him. The normally good-natured Mark Wood bounced him first ball, and followed up with an uncharacteristic spray of words.
Shortly after, Michael Gough, the umpire, had to intervene in a heated discussion between Bumrah and Jos Buttler, the England wicketkeeper. Meanwhile Virat Kohli, the India captain, shouted his own thoughts on the situation from the away team balcony.
All of which was the seminal point of the day, the moment when any semblance of a chance to push for victory leached away from England.
It was schoolyard stuff, as they were entirely distracted by the man rather than the match situation.
While they set about trying to scone Bumrah – and they did, twice – the unheralded Indian batting duo set about building a score that would take the game beyond the home team.
In the space of 20 overs, Bumrah and Mohammed Shami put on 89. Each of them posted their best Test score.
For Bumrah, his 34 took his Test career runs tally past his career wickets tally. Shami, for his part, hit his second Test half-century, sending one huge six into the second tier of the grandstand in the process.
To add salt to England’s wounds, captain Kohli let the duo carry on their merry way for two overs after the lunch break, before calling them in and declaring.
It left England a nominal target of 272 in 60 overs to chase. It was the sort of target that would be no sweat in a one-day international, but England opted out of a far more benevolent target in the first Test at Lord’s this summer, against New Zealand.
The idea that they would go for it was fanciful enough. Then factor in the fact they made a start to their chase that was so poor it was record breaking.
Rory Burns and Dom Sibley both made ducks, the first time both England’s openers had done so in the same innings in a home Test in history.
Despite the bleak start, England did hint the could fight it out. But India struck at vital moments. They made the first successful review of the Test match on the final ball before tea, to dismiss Jonny Bairstow.
In the first over after the break, they removed the rock that was Joe Root. Although Buttler dug in, he was unable to stave of the inevitable, as India sealed the win with the overs ticking away.
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Medicus AI
Started: 2016
Founder(s): Dr Baher Al Hakim, Dr Nadine Nehme and Makram Saleh
Based: Vienna, Austria; started in Dubai
Sector: Health Tech
Staff: 119
Funding: €7.7 million (Dh31m)
The five pillars of Islam
What sanctions would be reimposed?
Under ‘snapback’, measures imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council in six resolutions would be restored, including:
- An arms embargo
- A ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing
- A ban on launches and other activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, as well as ballistic missile technology transfer and technical assistance
- A targeted global asset freeze and travel ban on Iranian individuals and entities
- Authorisation for countries to inspect Iran Air Cargo and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines cargoes for banned goods
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Lexus LX700h specs
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Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
The biog
Favourite car: Ferrari
Likes the colour: Black
Best movie: Avatar
Academic qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in media production from the Higher Colleges of Technology and diploma in production from the New York Film Academy
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The Sheikh Zayed Future Energy Prize
This year’s winners of the US$4 million Sheikh Zayed Future Energy Prize will be recognised and rewarded in Abu Dhabi on January 15 as part of Abu Dhabi Sustainable Week, which runs in the capital from January 13 to 20.
From solutions to life-changing technologies, the aim is to discover innovative breakthroughs to create a new and sustainable energy future.
Thor: Ragnarok
Dir: Taika Waititi
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, Mark Ruffalo, Tessa Thompson
Four stars
