It was a moment that defied explanation — not just cricketing logic, but physics and fate. On a dramatic final afternoon at Lord’s, as India edged ever closer to a famous victory and England clung to a single wicket’s hope, the most unexpected delivery brought the match to its stunning end.
With just 22 runs to win, Mohammed Siraj, India’s No. 11, had stood tall for 30 deliveries, fending off bouncers, absorbing pressure, and backing Ravindra Jadeja in a rearguard almost heroic. India had collapsed to 112/8 in pursuit of 193 but rallied through its lower order — Bumrah, then Siraj — giving hope to a chase that had no right to survive as long as it did.
Then came Shoaib Bashir, bowling with a broken finger, from the Pavilion End, releasing a gentle, looping off-break into the Lord’s slope — not a "magic ball" in appearance, but soon to be etched into folklore.
What happened?
Siraj played it as correctly as one could:
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Soft hands. Dead bat. Middle of the blade.
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Perfectly behind the line, his technique textbook, his intent defensive.
And yet — the ball still hit the stumps.
In real time, it made no sense. In slow motion, even less.
As Jarrod Kimber dissected later:
"It spun off the pitch. Then off the bat. And then somehow again off the pitch."
The spin trajectory wasn’t conventional. The ball hit the middle of the bat — but the soft hands imparted just enough of a deflection that it tailed back subtly, brushing off the angled blade and finding a tiny gap between Siraj’s legs and the stumps. It clipped the leg stump — barely — with such a feathered touch that in a white-ball match with flashing bails, it might not have dislodged them.
But this was Test cricket. Red ball. Wooden bails. Lord’s.
And the bail fell.
Symbolism in One Delivery:
That delivery wasn't just an oddity of spin. It was a culmination of angles, slope, wear, bat face deviation, and sheer fate. It was a moment where everything — preparation, correctness, courage — still wasn’t enough.
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Siraj dropped to his knees, overcome by disbelief.
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Jadeja stood frozen, devastated at the other end.
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England roared. A 22-run win was sealed.
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India’s dream was denied by a ball that shouldn't have been threatening, but was.
Bigger Picture:
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India’s top-order collapse — 82 for 7 — had put them in a hole.
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Jadeja, 60 not out, had nearly dragged them out.
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But it came down to the No. 11, and a ball that spun not once, but multiple times — in the air, off the pitch, off the bat, and again off the surface.
And so, at Lord’s — the theatre of strange things — cricket offered another impossible finale. This wasn't Warne’s Gatting ball. It was subtler. Stranger. Maybe even crueler.
India will regroup in Manchester. But they’ll carry this ball with them, in memory, in video rooms, and in their collective psyche.
Because sometimes, in cricket, you do everything right — and still, the stumps fall.
