Five most expensive overs in Test cricket: Edgbaston just stayed witness to one of the most unfortunate records for an English bowler that saw Jasprit Bumrah taking out Stuart Broad for a crackling 35 runs in a single over, even though, this time the pacer had a couple of his own contributions as he bowled a wide and a no, that provided something extra to the stopgap India captain to make merry too.
However, Jassi was shown no respect by the Indian captain for the Edgbaston Test despite being the owner of 550 scalps in the longest format of the game. Broad found himself smiling after having no clue whatsoever about what was unfolding ahead of him. In the wake of Bumrah’s mindless blitzkrieg, we would bring to you the five most expensive overs in the antiquity of Test cricket.
#5 Harbhajan Singh (27 runs vs Shahid Afridi)
The hard-hitting off-spinner sometimes pulled off a handful of stunts of his own with the willow. However, this time he was at the receiving end as Shahid Afridi took him to the cleaners in Lahore in 2006.
He whacked him for 4 sixes and then in a remaining couple of deliveries would chip in a couple and a single to end the misery for Bhajji. Not really a day for the exciting Turbanator, would you say?
#4 Keshav Maharaj (28 runs vs Joe Root)
The South African off-spinner is one of the best in ODIs and T20Is. However, when it comes to the longer format of the game, he hasn’t really found his stride, and the Proteas have suffered for the same.
It was not far from now, in the near past of 2020, when Joe Root went ballistic against this exciting turner from the Rainbow Nation. Root has been in the form of his life for the last 3-4 years and Maharaj simply got stuck in a vortex of entropy inflicted by the former English skipper. Barring a bye-four in the last ball, Root would take out Maharaj for 3 fours and 2 sixes.
#3 James Anderson (28 runs vs George Bailey)
One of the T20 pioneers of Australia didn’t really savor an extraordinary time in the longest format of the games. But there were a handful of days when he had his days of triumph too and on one such day in 2013, James Anderson was shown the ropes way more frequently than Jimmy has been shown over 4-5 Test matches in a series clubbed, maybe.
Bailey loved toying with the King of Swing and the boundaries simply kept on flowing as he would hammer 2 fours and 3 sixes, laying waste to the English aspirations.
#2 Robin Peterson (28 runs vs Brian Lara)
The man with one of the most unorthodox bowling actions, Robin Peterson was a difficult mystery to crack. Yet when the emperor of batting took him on in a league of the whites, the former had no answer whatsoever.
One of the most fluent batters to have ever graced the sport, Brian Lara was a calm-headed destructor and somehow Peterson lost track of his line and length in that particular over, when Brian Lara chose to forge a world record that finished in 4 fours and 2 sixes. The record stood for a while unless…
#1 Jasprit Bumrah (35 runs vs Stuart Broad)
Bumrah woke up on a Saturday morning and just wanted to go for an adventure under the English rains and sadly that came at the expense of Stuart Broad. This is not the first time that Broad has been whacked for 30-plus runs by an Indian. Yuvraj Singh smashed him for a perfect 36. Bumrah had the chance to go beyond but the final ball of the over was that perfect yorker, where the Indian captain would only play survival.
The first ball flew for a boundary after Lees couldn’t judge the flyer that should have been a pretty simple grab. The following ball evaded everyone including the keeper as it raced away to the ropes. Piqued by insolence, Broad ended up bowling a waist-high full toss and Bumrah simply glided it beyond the ropes, using the pace of the delivery, mark of a signature number three, maybe? And then what followed was just Beethoven’s symphony in the making with all the crucial elements that help in forging the perfect musical piece.
