India defeated England in the fifth and final Test match by just six runs at the Oval to level the five-match series 2-2. Mohammed Siraj was the hero for India as he picked up a five-wicket haul in the second innings, including the last wicket of Gus Atkinson that sealed the contest for the visitors. Siraj was also named the player of the match for his heroic effort with the ball, as he accounted for nine scalps. After the match, Siraj revealed how he believed, after waking up on the final day, that India would win the Test match.
Siraj stated that he had a lot of belief in the morning, and he took a picture from Google and also added it as his phone's wallpaper. "When I woke up today, I believed that I could do it. I took a photo from Google and put it as my wallpaper, so I could do it," Siraj said after winning the player of the match award in the fifth Test.
Siraj reacts to his dropped catch of Harry Brook
Mohammed Siraj, however, was one of the culprits who dropped a catch on the fourth day. He took a catch of Harry Brook but stepped over the boundary line when he had hardly scored any runs, and the batter ended up scoring a century that turned the game on its head. However, Brook's wicket was the one that gave India the belief as well as the visitors still had 73 runs in the bank. Opening up about the same, Siraj stated that the match would've ended on the fourth day itself had he held on to Brook's catch.
"If I had taken that (Brook) catch properly, probably we may not have had to come today. But Brook played really well," Siraj added.
Siraj finished the Test series as leading wicket-taker
Meanwhile, Mohammed Siraj remained the only bowler in the end to play all five Test matches, even as Chris Woakes got injured during the first innings. Notably, for England, Woakes was the only bowler to feature in all matches of the series only to get injured by dislocating his shoulder. Siraj finished as the leading wicket-taker of the series with 23 scalps to his name.
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