James Anderson defends ‘unlucky’ Stuart Broad’s most-expensive over

Veteran England pacer James Anderson feels that Stuart Broad was unlucky to concede 35 runs in an over on Day 2 of the rescheduled fifth Test against India. India’s stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah, playing in the number ten position, smashed Broad for 29 runs in his 18th over. He now holds the record of scoring most runs in an over in Tests, surpassing the likes of Brian Lara, George Bailey, and Keshav Maharaj, who scored 28. As Broad in total gave away 35 runs in that over, the unwanted record of bowling the most expensive over in Tests is against his name .

Bumrah remained unbeaten on 31 runs off 16 balls and his contribution guided India past 400 runs in the first innings. These runs are likely to be crucial in deciding the result as England were struggling at 84 for five at the end of day two. Meanwhile, it is safe to say that Bumrah had a bit of luck by his side while batting. Ten of those runs came from the top edges and four from a thick inside edge. Broad consistently bowled short and good length deliveries on day two. Anderson reckons that any of that top edges could have gone to the fielder’s hands but it was not his day.

“On another day one of those top edges goes straight to hand. If that gets taken nobody talks about the over. I thought it was pretty unlucky. There’s plenty of top edges, and a couple of good shots but that’s the plan (captain) Ben (Stokes) wanted Broady to go with. Broady stuck to it and on another day when the luck was with Stuart an edge probably would have gone to hand,” James Anderson said after the day’s play.

Our best line of defence will be attack: James Anderson

Thanks to Bumrah’s knock and centuries from Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja, India were in a good position at stumps on day two. Bumrah continued his heroics with the ball as well by taking the first three wickets. Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj also contributed with a wicket to their names. England have their skipper Ben Stokes and in-form batter Jonny Bairstow at the crease and Sam Billings ready to come in. Anderson pointed out how their lower order had rescued them from difficult situations in the past weeks against New Zealand.

“I’ve got a fair feeling our best line of defence will be attack,” Anderson said. “The way we’ve got ourselves out of sticky situations in the last few weeks has been by trying to put pressure back on the opposition, and I don’t see this being any different. We want to score, we want to move the game forward, and that’s what we’ll try and do,” he added.