Mohammed Siraj was at the top of his game with the new ball on Day 2 of the second Test as he wiped out the New Zealand top order in a sensation spell of seam bowling. There was help for him from the surface and he bowled in the perfect channel to dismiss Tom Latham, Will Young and Ross Taylor in his first spell.
While the dismissal of Young and Latham was due to planning and set up, the dismissal of Taylor, who was bowled neck and crop by an away going delivery from the line of the off-stump was an idea of his own. He said that batsmen were expecting him to bowl inswingers on the basis of field setting and hence he tried to vary his plan of attack and produced a delivery that he rated “dream delivery for any fast bowler”.
He bowled his heart out and troubled New Zealand batters both with pace and line of attack. He said that the intensity was always high as he was aware that his opportunity with the ball will be limited considering it was a spin-friendly pitch in Mumbai.
"The plan was that we had set the field for an inswing delivery and to hit the pads, but the way I was building my rhythm, I thought why not bowl an outswing. It was a dream delivery for any fast bowler."
"I wanted to pitch it on stumps and hit one area consistently as it creates a problem for batters. The batters start leaving deliveries if you start bowling outside the off-stump," he said. "I knew I would get 3-4 overs of spell and wanted to bowl with full intensity.”
Mohammed Siraj has added another dimension to an already strong Indian pace attack and his prowess and intensity to bowl good deliveries to some of the best batsmen in the world would serve India well in the years to come.