On the fifth ball of the fourth over of the Asia Cup 2023 final between India and Sri Lanka, Mohammed Siraj was on a hat-trick after rapping Sadeera Samarawickrama on the pads and scalping Charith Asalanka, both for naught.
Had he got the hat-trick, he would have been the third bowler after Kapil Dev and Farveez Maharoof to achieve the feat in the Asia Cup, but a fluent on-drive from Dhananjaya de Silva deprived him of that record. But what Siraj did on that ball will be remembered and spoken about for ages, alongside the fiery spell that helped him to the second-best bowling figures in an Asia Cup till date.
Off his own bowling, he sprinted hard with full gusto towards long-on, racing Ishan Kishan in an attempt to save the boundary, albeit in vain. It was as rare a sight as one has ever seen on a cricket field, just like his pitched-up, swing bowling in the fourth over that fetched him four wickets – the first time an Indian bowler had taken such a haul.
All top-order batsmen, mind you.
Siraj then came back in the sixth over to uproot the off stump of Dasun Shanaka, the opposition skipper, with a peach of an outswinger, joining Chaminda Vaas in taking just 16 deliveries to take a five wickets in an ODI.
He returned in the 12th over to knock over Kusal Mendis with a ball that nipped back sharply. He would finish with 6-21, behind only Ajantha Mendis, Sri Lanka’s mystery spinner who took 6 for 13 and wreaked havoc against India in the Asia Cup final in Karachi in 2008.
Siraj became the 10th Indian bowler to take a six-wicket haul in the 50-over format, with the fourth-best ODI figures after Stuart Binny (6-4), Anil Kumble (6-12) and Jasprit Bumrah’s (6-19). In the procees, Siraj became the second-fastest to get to 50 ODI wickets in terms of balls bowled (1,222) – second once again to Mendis.
After 29 ODIs, there is one chart that he currently leads though, and that’s one that really matters for a bowler – strike rate, or the number of balls a bowler takes on average to take a wicket. Siraj’s strike rate of 24.07 is more than a 1.5 points ahead of his rivals, Haris Rauf and Shaheen Shah Afridi, who would easily be counted amongst the best in the business today.
And Siraj concedes just 19-odd runs per wicket, about four to five fewer than the other two.
Alongside Bumrah, he is a serious asset in the Indian bowling unit, and he seems to be fired up and all set for the 13th edition of the ODI World Cup that starts in around three weeks’ time.
It’s not just because of his wickets, strike rate and average that he is spearheading the Indian bowling attack, but the manner in which he in runs in, hits the deck hard, pitches it up and moves it both ways, while staring back into the batsmen’s eyes and running hard to save runs.
It’s that passionate, fiery fighting spirit that explains why he is what he is, and why he has had a flying start to his career, irrespective of the colour of the ball that he is bowling with.
Siraj Mian, aapke jaisa junoon chahiye zindagi mein [we need passion like yours in life]!